Tricked Trickster
by Sessho's Girl
Summary: Neya's crush on our favorite itsuwaribito looked like it was going nowhere, but she was the only one to trick him successfully before, so she could definitely pull something off to fix that.
1. Utsuho - Hot Springs

Author's Note: Good day to everyone! I honestly did not expect to be coming back to for anything other than a sequel maybe to my other story. However, I find the _Itsuwaribito Utsuho_ fandom to be severely lacking despite its recent popularity. That is why I decided to come up with my own UtsuhoxNeya story to add to Akimei the Twisted's "Neya's Hair Combs." I really recommend it, it is adorable!

**Pairings: UtsuhoxNeya, some HikaexIwashi if I can.**

**Genre: Romance**

**Rating: M**

**Spoilers/Setting: Spoilers up to chapter 117 or so. Takes place after they go to the Village of Lies and, presumably, get the final kokonotsu treasure (though I have no clue if it's there or not, but that's how it'll be in this story).**

**Notes: I do not own **_**Itsuwaribito Utsuho**_**, its characters, or plot because that all belongs to Yuuki Iinuma. Feel free to torch flame this story as much as you'd like, and I'll grab the marshmallows.**

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**Chapter 1. Utsuho — Hot Springs**

That feeling Utsuho had been left with was so steeply painful, he could not find the word to perfectly describe it. Empty. Alone. Lacking. Void. Incomplete. Ah, yes, incomplete was what he currently felt.

If Utsuho had ever read Shakespeare (had he not been Japanese and on the other side of the world) he would have wholeheartedly agreed with the line "Parting is such sweet sorrow." However, the "sweet" was not cutting it. It was bitter, bitter like poison. Leaving Pochi behind in the Village of Tanuki with that good-for-nothing-brat-with-a-stuck-up-attitude fiancé was one of the hardest decisions Utsuho had had to make in his life.

But what was he to do? Forever keep Pochi from the village and family that the mother had left behind? Just how much danger had Utsuho already placed on Pochi in the search for the kokonotsu treasures? As much as he acknowledged (believed, insisted, forced the tanuki to accept) that he was Pochi's family, he also had to think about Pochi's best interests.

A kicked rock tumbled along the dirt path the (now) eight of them were taking. Hika kicked up a few more pebbles, a pout on his face as he refused to talk to Utsuho. There had been some disagreement between the two when the decision to leave their tanuki-child in the village arose. Of course, Hikae was a steadfast vote for taking Pochi along, or simply staying in the village without them and serve as a protector. Needless to say, Nee-chan and Iwashi talked him out of it. Now all he had left was sulking. Oh well, he will cheer up by the time they run into the next leg of their journey.

Utsuho stared at his travel companions. Aside from Hika's bad mood, the others were quiet, trying not to look at him in pity…Well, Uzume the Bird Brain still blatantly stared with tears in the corners of his eyes.

It was kind of funny, though, now that he thought about it—when he first set off on his journey to save a thousand people with his lies, he quickly met Pochi, his first companion and family, and things stayed like that for a while before more people joined them.

First Yakuma, that annoying preachy doctor, then Nee-chan, an incompetent itsuwaribito (no, she did NOT trick him the first time they met!); Hika came after that in all his dangerous immortal glory while always trying to get Pochi's attention, and a long time afterward Iwashi joined up with the expectation that Utsuho would be her husband eventually.

Pfft! Like he can be a husband when he needed to save a thousand people or more.

Finally, there was Chouza, Uzume, and that kid Nee-chan hangs all over, Minamo.

Each person came to him and Pochi, now Pochi was gone, and they were all still there with him. That miserable feeling of incompleteness hit again as he though about it, and along with it came a deep, weary sigh.

"Don't worry, Pochi will surely be happy there, Utsuho," said Yakuma.

In his depression, Utsuho could only jump-kick Yakuma with half his usual enthusiasm.

Nee-chan turned around from where she was walking ahead of him to glare at his continuous poor treatment of Yakuma. No, he did not have the luck that with everything that had happened she would forget about him _accidentally_ pushing Yakuma over a cliff. That's how far his poor mood bought him in leniency: silence. As long as she did not lecture him again.

A few hours later of wandering back out of the mountain forest, the group came upon Hihi-baa's hot spring inn a second time. They greeted the old monkey-like woman, who was surprised to see them all there and alive (without Pochi, Utsuho dully noted). By then, the others were eager to get into the hot springs and ease their aching muscles.

"Ah, hot rings! Gotta love 'em!" said Uzume.

"Hot _springs_," corrected the long-banged nanny, Chouza. "But I agree with you on that," he added while stripping his clothes and folding them into the cubby.

"What about your bangs, what are you going to do with them?" asked Yakuma as he, too, stripped of his haori* and kimono.

"I'm all prepared this time—brought a towel to cover my face."

"Haha, Chouza! You'll just run into things like that!" said Uzume.

"I'll be sitting down most of the time, idiot."

The two criminals kept jabbering back and forth, splashing a bucket of water over their bodies before entering the steaming waters. Hika did likewise, no longer sulking as much as before.

"You okay, Utsuho?" Yakuma asked the quiet itsuwaribito.

"Perfectly fine, Mom, so stop being such a NAG!" said Utsuho, pronouncing the final word with a flying kick to the gut that sent the doctor flying into the water. He then leisurely settled himself into the water opposite of Yakuma with a taunting grin on his face.

"UTSUHO-SAN!"

"It's Nee-chan!" blushed Uzume in joy, ignoring the warning to the other white-haired boy. "She's on the other side this time…in only a towel!"

"Please do go over there, Bird Brain," insisted Utsuho. "Then she'll stop lecturing me and will yell at you."

"No, Utsuho, don't encourage him—" Yakuma scrambled to say, nervous at the thought of someone peeking in on Neya and invoking her wrath.

"Getting yelled at is totally mirth it if I get to see Nee-chan naked!"

"That's 'worth it' and are you sure, Uzume?" questioned Chouza.

Uzume was already working his way up the fence blushing all the way. It was only then that Utsuho felt an inkling of regret for suggesting the muscle-brained idiot to peek at Nee-chan. Sure, Uzume saw Iwashi with a towel last time, but that covered more than what she wore on a daily basis in Utsuho's opinion. But Nee-chan…

"KYAAA!"

_Splash!_

BONK!

…

Uzume was lying unconscious on the stone ground of the hot spring, a vicious bump where the wooden bucket connected to his head. Utsuho's thought at that moment was:

_'Well damn, now I need to go get a new bucket.'_

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Author's After-note: From here on out, italicized sentences are presumed to be thoughts. There's really no set length to any of these chapters, so some of them will be short like this, and others will be much longer. I hope I portrayed everyone in-character, because OOC is really annoying unless if it is really, _really_ AU.

Also, a _haori_ is like an overcoat that generally hangs loosely over the kimono. Yakuma wears a dark one with his sun design on the back, and another big example are the white cloaks the 13 Court Squad Captains in _Bleach_ wear.

Last note, as these chapters are solely from a certain person's point of view, the general narration will include the way they refer to people when thinking and the dialogue will be how they refer to them when speaking aloud. For Utsuho, it's like so:

**Yakuma: **Thinking - "Yakuma" Speaking - "Yakuma", sometimes "Mom" when teasing.

**Neya:** Thinking - Nee-chan, sometimes "Neya" when being really serious Speaking - "Nee-chan", and if serious "Neya"

**Hikae:** Thinking - "Hika" Speaking - "Hika"

**Iwashi: **Thinking - "Iwashi" Speaking - "Hime-san"

**Uzume:** Thinking - "Uzume" Speaking - "Uzume" unless he feels he's being stupid so he'll call him "Bird Brain" (which is often)

**Chouza: **Thinking - "Chouza" Speaking - "Chouza"

**Minamo:** Thinking - "Minamo" Speaking - "Chibikko"

Found this list for how they refer to people aloud here: decteeze . dreamwidth 2743 . html

Take out the spaces, put "period-slash-org" between "dreamwidth" and "2743", and that should help. This site has given me way too much trouble in trying to post this address.


	2. Neya - Hot Springs

Author's Note: Like Utsuho has his own notations, so does Neya:

**Utsuho:** Thinking - "Utsuho" Speaking - "Utsuho-san"

**Yakuma:** Thinking - "Yakuma" Speaking - "Yakuma-san"

**Hikae:** Thinking - "Hikae" Speaking - "Nibyo-san"

**Iwashi:** Thinking - "Iwashi" Speaking - "Hime-sama"

**Uzume:** Thinking - "Uzume" Speaking - "Uzume-san"

**Chouza: **Thinking - "Chouza" Speaking - "Chouza-san"

**Minamo:** Thinking - "Minamo" Speaking - "Minamo-chan"

Essentially, I made her thoughts much simpler, because she is simply being formal when speaking, so in thinking she simply drops the honorifics. Some of the other characters have nicknames for each other, particularly Iwashi, but I'm sure that everyone can figure them. If there are any complex ones, I'll mention them.

If you have any frustrations in life, go ahead and direct them into your critique.

On to the story!

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**Chapter 2. Neya - Hot Springs**

The tension left behind from leaving Pochi at the tanuki village nearly did it for Neya. She had loved Pochi as a little sister (at least she thought of Pochi as a girl, not that the mystery was ever solved), and had had to hold back her tears when they were saying goodbye.

Then there was Utsuho! He was not the type of guy to cry, she just knew, but it was undoubtedly heartbreaking for him to let go. With him tromping along behind her, she could practically feel his depression weighing down on her back.

"Don't worry, Pochi will surely be happy there, Utsuho," said Yakuma.

Neya flinched at his poor word choice of comfort, and fully expected Utsuho to retaliate like an angry child by kicking the doctor, albeit less harshly than usual.

That did not mean she was going to let him get away with it, _especially_ after he pushed Yakuma off a cliff.

She mustered her angriest glare, which was easy given she was in an overall bad mood, and about-faced to scowl at Utsuho. It felt so much better to be angry than it did to be depressed.

Utsuho ducked his head down to stare at the side of the path with his squinted fox-eyes. And lucky for her, the pout gracing his face made the usually handsome, mischievous Utsuho look absolutely, endearingly adorable, causing Neya to blush in the process. Before she could be found out, Neya spun back around to face the road, ashamed that she was admiring Utsuho at this kind of time.

The rest of the trip to Hihi-baa's hot spring inn was just as quiet as the first part.

She had to admit, though, that she could not wait to soak in the hot, steamy water of the hot springs. Last time they came, Neya had to stay outside and wash Pochi so she wouldn't drown. Not that she begrudged the tanuki this, she simply wished to enjoy the pleasure of soaking as well.

"Hot springs are truly fitting for taking care of my skin," Iwashi said as she removed her few scarves and draped a towel around her curvaceous figure.

"Minamo wishes she could go in as well," said the blue-eyed child.

"That kimono is really helpful most of the time, but I suppose in cases like these, it works against you, huh, Minamo-chan?" said Neya, feeling for the girl. "We didn't have them back on Nadeshiko Island," she added, recalling the harsh environment on the former kill-or-be-killed island. _'I wonder if everyone is doing well there now that the serious criminals are gone.'_

"Aran?" said Iwashi, as though remembering something. "What exactly was Nadeshiko Island like? Nee-yan has never brought it up before."

"Hmmm…I would say it is beautiful at first glance. The forests and beaches were lovely, as was the view looking out over the sea, but…" Neya paused, recalling the suffocating desperation to get off the prison-like island, filled with murderers and surrounded by unforgiving currents trapping them on all sides. There had been nights when she had first gotten on the island with the old woman that she could not sleep because she felt so trapped—only on the nights she did not mourn for Onihime, at least.

Things had certainly improved when she had gathered children and the more innocent criminals to form a village, so in a way, they had saved here as much as she had saved them. Then Utsuho came to Nadeshiko Island, and just as quickly went, dragging her with him…

"—NAG!" came the shot from the boys' side, undoubtedly Utsuho, followed by a splash that was likely him hitting Yakuma the second time that day.

Immediately plunged into her foul mood toward him, she yelled "UTSUHO-SAN!" in warning.

Iwashi peered at Neya in a laid-back form of appraisal. "How do you manage Utsuho-sama, I wonder?"

Neya blushed, suddenly feeling like the bossy older sister, so she focused more on getting undressed and into the water while looking away from the beautiful princess.

"I suppose because we've known each other for a while, and I've handled naughty children often, I naturally do it."

"Oh? So you would say Utsuho-sama is a naughty child? That is not how I believe a girl would see the man she loves," said Iwashi without batting an eye.

Always such a straightforward and open woman. And as always, she made Neya blush at the implications.

"W-well, what point is there?" fumbled Neya. "I've already told him my feelings, and he _ignored_ me," she said disheartened. "What else can I do but be his family? He won't see me as anything else."

By then, Neya was sinking further into the searing water, hoping that the liquid burning sensations on her skin would not only clean off the grime on her skin, but also the cold, sinking despair wracking her heart.

"It sounds like you've given up. That's no fun to have a love rival that gives up." The princess sounded thoroughly disappointed.

"I—" Neya began, lifting herself up to argue against Iwashi's statement, only to stop short upon spotting Uzume staring down from over the top of the wooden fence.

Her first instinct:

"KYAAA!" as she plunged underwater with her hands over her front, then peeked to see Uzume was falling backwards after a resounding BONK!

_'Just how much did he see!?'_

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Author's After-note: Just if anyone was wondering, I've already written up to and including chapter 15 of this story. That's why it will be released pretty quickly, though I have my limits on how long I can sit in front of a computer typing. I have to say, though, without a computer charger for two weeks, thus no computer for two weeks, I write a lot more than usual.


	3. Utsuho - What You Say, What You See

Author's Note: Hmmm…nothing much to say here. Please read, review, and enjoy. All I can think of right now is how much I want to read the rest of _Itsuwaribito Utsuho_ and find out what happens. I accidentally saw some cover pictures for later volumes, and so the suspense is killing me. Pleeeeaaaaassse have them update soon! I'm thinking of joining the group to translate just to read it sooner.

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**Chapter 3. Utsuho - What You Say, What You See**

After the bath fiasco, Chouza had dragged Uzume out, dressed him, and brought him back to the guys' room. It wasn't cool that the five of them had to share a room, while the girls only had three people in a room—one of which was a child!

Each of them was wearing a yukata, eating some of the snacks Hihi-baa brought. The girls were apparently not going to come discuss their plans for where they were headed after this now that they had eight of the nine treasures.

"Ugh…"

Utsuho glanced over at Uzume whom was just waking up.

"You okay now, Uzume?" Chouza asked.

"What happened? One moment I saw Nee-chan in all her beady and then my head really hurt!"

"You mean 'beauty'."

"Wait!" panicked Yakuma. "Just how much of her did you see!?"

Uzume grinned as he reddened, and even Hika was waiting to hear the details.

"I saw…" some more blushing and a dreamy look on his face, "her bare shoulders and some of her back!"

"Stupid!" Chouza chided, whacking Uzume on the top of the head. "What's so great about seeing her shoulders?"

"But Chouza," whined the simpleton, "they looked so smooth and soft and small—" rambled on Uzume, seemingly picturing Nee-chan's shoulders as he grew redder with each moment. It had started to grate a nerve with Utsuho with how…_sensual_ he was making the scene out to be.

"Hah!" he interrupted, laughing at Uzume, whom was showing just how much of an innocent pervert he was. "Your head's just in the clouds and desperate for any kind of girl if you think that _Nee-chan's_ all that pretty!"

"Oh really?" said a quiet voice behind him.

There at the shoji door to their room, Iwashi's hand hovered at the door's notch, holding her fan to her chin, mouth formed into an 'O' in surprise; beside her were Minamo and, of course, Nee-chan.

At that point, Utsuho figured she would be yelling at him, but more than anything, Nee-chan appeared to be honestly upset. She looked like she may have wanted to say something, staring at him as she was, yet she simply turned back around and walked away.

That was something he had not wanted her to hear, or even take seriously. Did she not at least take into account that he was a liar? After all the verbal (and sometimes physical in Yakuma's case) abuse he put both her and Yakuma through, could she not see through his joke?

"I'll go check on her," said Yakuma, hurriedly getting up and pursuing the girl out. He was such a nosy mother-like guy.

"Smooth, Utsuho-kun," said Hika, snickering as usual at the trouble that went on around him.

"You made Nee-chan upset, Utsuho!" shouted Uzume, jumping up to tower over Utsuho. "Just what d'ya mean mean by that, huh!? She's super pretty!"

Chouza put a hand on his partner's shoulder. "Calm down, Uzume. However, Thread Eyes, I do think you need to apologize. I know you seem to have a hard time doing that, but this time might have been the wrong time."

"Hmph!" Utsuho said. _'Always apologize for this, apologize for that lately. What's up with that? Uncool.'_

Rather than saying anything, Utsuho simply got up and headed out toward the girls' room where he presumed them to be. Unfortunately, they were not there, so he continued out the front of the building and examined the outside surroundings. To his right, he saw a small path going through the light forested area the inn was situated in.

Utsuho kept along the path lit by now only by the moon's radiance, his footsteps light and sneaky as was his habit. It was not long that he heard some muttering up ahead of him, which was why he carefully peeked around trees in his approach in order to avoid rudely interrupting their discussion and worsening the situation.

He finally caught sight of his two traveling companions at the bank of a small stream, and…

Utsuho stiffened where he was standing, observing the scene.

Yakuma's back faced him, two of Nee-chan's slim arms wrapped around it clutching at the fabric tightly; Yakuma's arms were also wound tightly around the girl, though for the most part she was blocked by Yakuma's body. The silly, doting doctor's head was bent forward toward that overly-sensitive, kind-of-useless girl-itsuwaribito Neya.

She was just hugging him for comfort, for sure, was what Utsuho told himself. Besides, Yakuma had a thing for that unreachable emperor's wife still, so no worries. And why would he even be worried? It was not like he cared what they did in their love lives.

But he knew that all of what he was telling himself were lies.

After all, he was an itsuwaribito.

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Author's After-note: I always feel bad for Yakuma because of his impossible love for Kouhi-sama. Will he ever find love for himself in the main story? I really hope so.

Anyway, I may or may not type another chapter today. We'll see. See you!


	4. Neya - What You Say, What You See

Author's Note: Like I said before, this will be updated pretty fast. Hopefully, someone will read this far. *Pouts*

Any and all critiques will be greatly appreciated. I use them as fuel for my ego-tank, and currently it is running pretty low. Any refills?

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**Chapter 4. Neya - What You Say, What You See**

Neya could not clearly say how much Uzume saw, but she had been embarrassed nonetheless. Iwashi had tried to console her that there was nothing much to Uzume seeing her wrapped in a towel as long as the towel stayed _on._

This did little to assuage the shy teenager. Maybe this was a type of maturity that the real princess held from being out of her teen years. Sure, Neya had been the former body-double to an 8-year-old princess hated by her people, but she never had had much close involvement with males there or on Nadeshiko Island. One could only describe her as naive to it all.

Honestly, Neya figured they expected her to lecture or start a rampage against Uzume, yet all she wanted to do at the moment was gather her thoughts in the girls' room, Iwashi and Minamo watching and waiting.

"All right!" said Neya, standing up with a slap to her face from both hands. "Let's go."

As the three drew down closer to the guys' room a few rooms down from their own, they heard the boys talking inside.

"They looked so smooth and soft and small—"

Soon Neya was mortified. Did he see them!?

"Hah!" sounded an incredulous laugh from what sounded like Utsuho, making Neya strain hard to hear. Your head's just in the clouds and desperate for any kind of girl if you think that _Nee-chan's_ all that pretty!"

Neya's heart plummeted.

Iwashi had decided at that exact moment to let their presence be known by sliding open the shoji.

"Oh really?" tumbled out of Neya's mouth, even though she told herself to come up with a more witty remark. Nothing like that came to mind, and coupled with her misery from before, the usually harmless blow landed hard on her conscious mind.

In truth, she wanted to say "Sorry I'm not that pretty" or "Guess I'm not much of a girl to you." Neya knew, though, that saying such things would do nothing to help her situation, and would merely make her come off as petty.

To save herself from acting rashly, Neya broke eye contact with Utsuho, then turned around to walk out of the inn. She needed fresh air or the tears would start coming out. There at her right was the pathway she had spotted previously in coming to the inn, so she chose to go down it and see where it went. The subtle babbling of running water reached her ears, promising a spot with cold water to rinse her face and eyes—she certainly needed it. Coming up to the stream, Neya knelt down and cupped her hands in the ice water, a stark contrast to the hot spring water.

Steps sounded a bit behind her. Quickly, she splashed the freezing water on her face before glancing back as Yakuma came out of the foliage.

"Are you okay, Neya?"

"Yeah, I was just…overreacting a little." A loud sigh escaped her.

"I have to say I was a bit surprised you took his remark so seriously. Usually, you have a more energetic, indemnified response."

Should she mention her conversation with Iwashi to Yakuma? He had always been there to support her in her love for Utsuho, even when Iwashi joined the group to pursue _her_ love of the fox-like itsuwaribito.

"Iwashi and I were talking in the bath about how I am like family to Utsuho-san. It doesn't feel like I have much of a chance to be any more than that to him."

"You just need to keep trying. As it is, you are the closest girl to him," explained Yakuma. "Though it may come across that you aren't going anywhere with Utsuho, you are in fact much closer than anyone else in receiving his affections."

"But—" Neya said, her voice cracking as the tears renewed themselves. "I don't see it!"

Neya hugged her doctor friend, her hands bunched into his hakama as she began to silently cried into his chest. At that point, she needed some sort of human contact. Yakuma simply wrapped her in his arms, silently assuring her that he was there.

"Keep at it," he said, his go-to line when encouraging Neya.

If only she could believe that was enough.

* * *

Author's After-note: Aw, poor Neya. I always felt that she would be kind of down about her love for Utsuho if confronted about it seriously. I have just exaggerated this for a bit more drama.


	5. Utsuho - New Companion

Author's Note: Now we're getting a little more into the story, if I recall correctly. Based on the chapter title, it's really Mary Sue-ish, right? Well, let me know how you like this character. And if you want them dead and gone, just say so in a brutally cruel way. I promise I won't cry…

* * *

**Chapter 5. Utsuho - New Companion**

Their group was now headed to Kyoto, the grand capitol of Japan. Now with eight of the nine treasures in their possession, the only one left was the zori*, the Dual Flowers, that that government agent Hiruko Yorushichi grabbed from Utsuryo Island. It would be a good two months to go back by foot.

This gave Utsuho a _loooot_ of thinking time. Half the time, though, he was asking himself if there was any point in pondering the recent events. It certainly got his mind off of Pochi whom was now staying with blood family; however, in its place, and uncomfortable uneasiness had begun to worm its way in instead.

He had not attempted to talk to Neya since catching her embracing Yakuma, which meant his apology still went unsaid. For the most part, the cherry-blossom-haired girl spoke with Yakuma and Iwashi or fawned over Minamo, then the occasional few times Hika pestered her into responding to his taunts about one thing or another. Utsuho could only assume Chouza had convinced Uzume not to talk to her for awhile after having been the initial cause of everything.

And thank goodness for that! He didn't need that Bird Brain instigating her any further.

"Man, this is soooo boring without Pochi," complained Hika the fifth time that day.

"Nyan-Nyan, do you not find our presence at all amusing?" asked Iwashi. "You are harder to impress than I originally thought."

"You have anything fun in mind?"

"Eraawrr…"

"You had making random sounds in mind?" said Hika.

"Aran? That wasn't me. What was that sound just now?" Iwashi said, baffled.

"Probably an animal somewhere nearby," Chouza said.

Minamo paused in her steps, her gaze growing farther away to the left of the road. "Over there," she pointed.

"We should leave it alone," suggested Hika.

"It might be something interesting," said Utsuho.

Each of them gradually left the road going after Minamo. Her kimono kept her from getting dirty or her clothes ripped, which allowed her to move faster than the more grown and dirt-prone young adults walking behind her. Coming back into sight of the girl, she had already stopped in front of a moaning fox cub. Utsuho scanned the creature as it was laying down, noting how gingerly it held its back right leg.

"Aw, poor thing. It's hurt."

A couple feet to his side, Nee-chan had spoken out with such concern for the creature. She leaned in closer, her hand outstretched to pet it. It growled a bit, making her hand halt for a few seconds, then continued.

"It's very likely been abandoned by its family because of its leg," she said solemnly. "Here, boy," she said, offering her fingers to be smelled. Tentatively, the fox cub sniffed her fingers and swiped its tongue out to taste, and Nee-chan took the incentive to rub its chin and cheeks. The fox relaxed into her unhurried, steady touch as it flopped its tail up and down off the ground. "I want to take care of it."

"Hey, hey, is that really a good idea? This is a fox, after all—it might attack us when it gets hungry," reasoned Chouza.

"There should be small concern for that," Yakuma assured, "if it will be around humans, it can be trained to not attack them and hunt for its own food."

"If you say so."

Nee-chan ceased petting the fox, veering hesitant eyes toward Utsuho. "Does that sound reasonable, Utsuho-san?"

Kind of shocked that she had finally spoken to him (and practically asking for his permission, no less!) it took him a couple seconds to come up with an appropriate reply.

"Do what you want." He started heading back onto the road.

Dammit! He hadn't meant to sound so indifferent! He sounded like a douche, and that's uncool. The entire situation was getting really tiring.

He waited for the rest of the group to come back. One by one they popped back out, brushing twigs and leaves from their clothes. Nee-chan came up from the rear, the fox bundled in her outer kimono and held in her small arms.

"There should be a village half a day's walk from here. If we hurry, we should make it there by nightfall," said Yakuma.

"Then let's get this toe on the road!" shouted Uzume.

"_Show_ on the road," corrected Chouza.

"I guess no stopping for lunch," dramatically sighed Hika, accusingly staring at Neya. "Thanks to Nee-chan's little detour."

Neya simply glared back at the immortal.

Barely half-an-hour after sunset, the nine of them reached a decently large town due to their quick pace and no breaks. The fox cub had fallen asleep in Neya's arms, its head propped lazily on her forearm.

Utsuho would not admit it was cute—it did not come anywhere close to being as cute as Pochi! He just determined it best to ignore the slanted-eyed creature and its owner to focus on what he was doing, such as searching for a place to stay for the night.

Unfortunately, the village had a disproportionately large amount of buildings and businesses to the amount of inns. Given the number of likely travelers, merchants mostly, no doubt going through there daily, there should have been more lodgings. As luck would have it, they were crowded into one 8-tatami mat* room.

That was close-quarters. The futons laid out for the eight of them lapped over the sides of each other, and the places where their heads would be laying (they had lined them up so it was two rows of four with the heads facing each other and the feet toward the walls) were also stuffed together. Chouza ended up in one corner next to Uzume, who Minamo always slept beside so she took the other side, and then Nee-chan was set up next to Minamo given how she loved to be by the child. Opposite of Nee-chan was Yakuma, then Utsuho who was flanked by Iwashi (she never really minded his personal space, he noticed) and finally Hika at the end across from Chouza. Everyone agreed to stay out and about in town for as long as possible before retiring for the night in order to avoid being squished in for an unnecessarily long period of time.

Wandering around town, they found a tea shop with dango, where Utsuho went through stick after stick after stick of dango while chatting with Hika. Utsuho kept inadvertently glancing over at Nee-chan sitting beside Yakuma, both hand-feeding the fox cub some fish they had bought at another store. The two had managed to keep the small fox out of sight from the shop owner; had he not been so awkward with them, he would have called them out and gotten the two in trouble for a good laugh.

Not being able to have any fun with his two oldest traveling companions, stuck in this weird limbo, was really inconveniencing his trickster ways. Somehow, he had to convince Nee-chan to put it all behind her so he could go back to hitting Yakuma and teasing her with Hika. He did not have to go out of his way to fix anything with Yakuma because he would always let him get away with things as long as it was just himself getting jerked around.

After they were done eating, Hika got up from beside Utsuho and dashed over to the doctor. He did not even break his stride just as he grabbed Yakuma's medicine box, prompting the black-haired man to immediately pursue. Hika ran all around town, to the outskirts, all the way out of sight with Yakuma on his tail. The group exchanged glances at the cat-like man's behavior, but soon shrugged it off as his usual bullying of the doctor.

Inevitably, the two came back about ten minutes later, Yakuma sporting a red spot on his face where he was undoubtedly hit.

"All right, Utsuho-kun!" cheered Hika. "Let's go back and…" he leaned in closer to whisper, "steal everyone's pillows for ourselves before they get back." An eyebrow waggled on his forehead at Utsuho, enticing him into some mischief.

"Sounds fun. Let's do it."

Thus the two of them gave the excuse they were tired (even though Hika does not get tired) and headed back to their cramped room. They collected up all the small rectangular pillows and lined them up two-by-two on their own futons, testing out the increased cushioning.

The floor outside the room creaked, signaling the arrival of someone before they had even opened the door. Nee-chan and Yakuma walked in on them sprawled out on their futons, carrying the fox bundle in arms. Nee-chan's eyes widened momentarily, prior to ignoring their antics and sitting at her futon. Utsuho attempted to likewise ignore her and Yakuma while they unwrapped the fox cub.

"He's looking better, but I am going to check around the area for some herbs I saw near the outskirts of the town. Some of them might help in his recovery," said Yakuma.

"Oh, then maybe I should go with you," Nee-chan proposed, preparing to get back up.

"No, keep near him for awhile. He needs his rest and he seems to be comforted by being with you."

Just as Yakuma began heading out, Hika jumped up, saying, "Hey, Isha-kun*, I wanna come along!"

It all became utterly obvious to Utsuho what they were plotting, especially when Hika winked at him over his shoulder.

Their way of saying, "Make up with Nee-chan!" apparently.

He'd get back at them later for trying to deceive him (which he was _not_) despite it being in his best interests, and took the opportunity presented to him.

"Have you thought of a name for it yet?" he asked while laying on his back, arms crossed behind his head and counting boards on the ceiling.

"E-eh?" Nee-chan said, astonished he broke the silence. "Yeah, I've been thinking about one since I picked him up. My favorite name so far is Nao…what do you think?"

Honestly, he thought it was odd to name a fox "honest" given their nature, but he was not going to say that.

"Sounds like a good name."

A pregnant silence filled the room as the conversation died a quick death, causing Utsuho to internally debate with himself what he should say or if he should even say it.

"Would you like to pet him?" Nee-chan asked.

"…Sure." He sat up and twisted around toward Nao and Nee-chan, inching in closer, and reached out his hand for Nao to sniff similarly to how Nee-chan did earlier. _Sniff sniff…snort!_ Nao shifted his head away from the proffered hand to nuzzle more into Nee-chan's stomach where the cub was laying across her lap.

"Um, I'm sure he'll get to like you eventually," she said, noticing the annoyed twitch in his eye.

"Never mind," huffed Utsuho, deciding he did not like the fox. "Sorry."

Nee-chan gazed up at him. "Hm?"

"About before…" he really did not like apologizing—it meant he was wrong in his actions and she was not making it easy! "When I was talking to Uzume, you know."

"Oh! Yeah…um, thanks…" she said, her cheeks reddening. "It was partially my fault for acting up so much. B-but! It was really embarrassing how Uzume-san saw my-my—" her face flamed redder than he had ever seen it before as she struggled to speak.

"Your shoulders?" finished Utsuho, baffled that she would be all that bothered about that.

"Eh?" she said, her blush receding and simple bewilderment remaining. "S-shoulders? He just saw my shoulders!?"

"Yeah. That's what he said he saw and that's it."

Nee-chan heaved a huge sigh, her body slouching forward as if a large weight had lifted from her. Nao even had to move off her lap next to her things to avoid being crushed by her leaning forward.

Utsuho's eyes drifted down to follow her slouching movement, moving from her bowed head to the back of her bent neck, farther down her single kimono layer where it crossed on her milky smooth chest to the surprisingly more-pronounced-than-he-thought mounds that were faintly exposed by gravity's pull on her kimono…

His neck nearly got whiplash with how fast he swiveled it and his thoughts away from such things (or at least he tried to). The shifting of clothes indicated to him that Nee-chan was straightening back up, allowing him to arrange his face into something more normal while he looked at her.

"I'm also sorry for everything, Utsuho-san," she said, a relieved smile stretching across her pink lips and a minute tilt of her head showing she was perfectly fine with him once more—as well as showing a more generous view of her slender neck on one side.

"No problem!" Utsuho said, his voice forced out so it did not come out even more clipped. There was no reason he should be noticing all these things about Nee-chan! These thoughts were unnecessary and acting to stall his brain. Simply put, it was like throwing wrenches into his clever, scheming mind and halting all processes to one thing.

_'Okay, so maybe (definitely) Bird Brain had a point in saying Nee-chan is pretty.'_

* * *

Author's After-note: Yes, I liken myself to a small fox cub. Haha! Just joking.

As you can see, no, I will not force anyone to endure a Mary Sue character. Any new characters that will be introduced will most likely be around a few chapters or less to move the story along since, you know, the world has people all over the place. Otherwise, no worries.

Wow, Yakuma is just the major butt-monkey of the group—everyone ends up hitting him, his love is horribly unrequited and impossible, his nickname is "Mom" or "mother-in-law" and so on. I hope his situation improves in the manga.

**Zori: **Japanese slippers. They look like flip-flops essentially, except I believe they are sewed from straw and covered in cloth, but I'm not too sure. The Dual Flowers are a pair of zori that government agent Hiruko, with his super powerful legs, managed to get in the volcano at Utsuryo Island. That's the place Utsuho and co. met Kuroha's group for the first time.

**Tatami mat: **The tatami mat is a rectangular straw mat tightly sewn together and used for most old-style Japanese floors. The length is generally twice the width, and there are different measured mats. The ones I had in mind here were kyouma tatami, which are 0.955 m x 1.91 m (found on Wikipedia if you enter "tatami mat"). In other words, eight of these would make for 14.6 m2, or 19.6 ft2.

**Isha-kun:** This is Hikae's nickname for Yakuma. "Isha" means "doctor" in Japanese, and he simply adds the more familiar young man's honorific to it.


	6. Neya - Shopping's Always a Hassle

Author's Note: Neya and Utsuho are back to talking again. Yay! Now on with the story. As for the chapter title, I just want to say: I may be a girl, but shopping is one of my **least** favorite activities. It is exhausting going into stores and depressing thinking about the money you have just spent. I'm a poor student paying off student loans, so this is a sentiment I always hold whenever I even buy a drink from a coffee stand!

Hopefully this story is going at a decent pace for anyone reading. Half the time, I felt like I was writing while half-asleep, so do excuse some of the oddity that I am unable to fix transferring from paper to computer.

As always, do review, whether with a loving or hating frame-of-mind, I'm open to it all. Because really people, that's life.

* * *

**Chapter 6. Neya - Shopping's Always a Hassle**

A large weight lifted from Neya's shoulders when she and Utsuho resolved the tension between them. When everyone got back, they were also glad that everything was back to normal.

In fact, their greatest problem at the time became fitting in comfortably in such a crammed space. Both Utsuho and Hikae did not relinquish the stolen pillows (except Hikae gave one to Iwashi) despite the struggle that occurred.

Eight bundles were settled in eight futons, plus Nao was curled up with Neya. The lights were out and the subtle sounds of snoring arose more gradually.

Neya laid down on her side facing toward Minamo (and Utsuho! she inwardly squealed) preparing to go to sleep as well. A light slumber came upon her, not enough to pull her into her dreams, for slight sounds from the real world infiltrating the dark haze behind her eyes.

The beginnings of a dream appeared. Utsuho was Nao, yet his fur was white patterned black in two spots by Utsuho's design he wore. The Utsuho-fox stared at her, then turned around and slowly walked away from her. His head swiveled back around, as if asking why she was not following him. She was going to take a step forward when a rustle of fabric caught her attention. It should not have been her when moving, and the fox was certainly not—

Eyes peered wearily open through the darkness of the room. Based on how much darker it had gotten, Neya figured it was already and hour into the night. Her eyes caught Utsuho's slitted ones, and in that dim light, she could not tell whether his eyes were open or closed. If they were, then he was staring right back at her. Neya continued to gaze at him, figuring that he would let her know if he knew she was awake and ogling him.

Satisfied she was safe, she simply enjoyed absorbing Utsuho's sleeping image. For several minutes she laid there staring serenely.

An eye cracked open. "Stop looking at me, I can feel it in my sleep!" whispered Utsuho, along with a pillow thrown at her face.

Mortified at being caught in the act of unabashedly watching him sleep, Neya could feel the blood rush to her cheeks heatedly. She also noted the pillow he had thrown at her; Utsuho had already flipped over to his other side away from her, so she assumed he had no intention of taking it back.

_'Thanks, Utsuho,'_ she thought as she laid her head on the pillow, at last entering the realm of dreams for the night.

**xXx**

The next morning allowed for everyone to stock up on supplies and do some general shopping. It also showed that Nao could walk around decently on his bandaged foot.

Neya accompanied Iwashi and Minamo while the princess browsed around for new fabrics and any "beautiful things" as she would say.

"Hm, this color lip paint would suit you, Nee-yan~" said Iwashi, holding a small compact of pale pink paint.

"Do you think so, Hime-sama?"

"Of course. And a girl should always try to look more beautiful."

The itsuwaribito was always touched by the princess's thoughtfulness. She deliberated on getting the make-up, for it certainly appeared to be a pretty color, and just about matched her hair.

"KYAAA!"

"AH!"

The three girls chanced a look outside where all the screaming and commotion was coming from. Men on horses and by foot waving their swords and spears around flooded through the town: bandits.

"I'll go get Utsuho-sama!" yelled Iwashi, speeding nimbly out of the store while Neya focused on protecting Minamo.

"Come on, Minamo-chan!"

Both of them dodged around the bucking horses and ducked beneath swinging spears. The entire time, Neya was keeping her eyes peeled for Utsuho and the others.

"Over there," Minamo said in her small airy voice, pointing behind he to the right.

Thank goodness Minamo was calm enough to remember to use her eyes, because Neya had completely forgotten about them!

It was a mad dash through the surrounding chaos, even if they stayed to the side. Neya had to waste a couple kana on bandits that charged at them. Their luck was not holding, since Utsuho and the rest seemed to also be moving farther away each time, if the explosions were any indication.

"Where is he—ah!" Neya caught a glimpse of spiky white hair several yards away from them. "There he is!"

BAM!

…

The world spun as Neya fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

Author's After-note: Finally, something serious is happening! I actually really liked writing all of the stuff that comes after this, so I hope others can enjoy it too.

I do believe that the ancient form of lipstick around the world (or at least in Asia) had pigments mixed in with oil, similar to modern lipstick but nowhere near as advanced, so it was a type of paint that they would use brushes to apply on the lips. Remember _Mulan_ when she was dressed up for the meeting with the matchmaker? Think of something like that.


	7. Utsuho - Shopping's Always a Hassle

Author's Note: Okay, last chapter for the night. I'm just speeding through what I've written. Well…I've handwritten up to 62 pages, and the first six chapters only cover the first 20, so there's still a lot left.

I'm too sleepy to write anything else here. *Yawn*

Wow, I just yawned after typing that. Anyone ever wonder why yawns are so contagious? So weird…

* * *

**Chapter 7. Utsuho - Shopping's Always a Hassle**

Morning was unwelcome to the sleepy itsuwaribito. It was bad enough that they were cramped together in such a small space, though he could get used to it, but he had been STARING at Nee-chan as she slept!

Granted, part of it was because that little annoyance, Nao, kept burrowing loser and closer to Nee-chan's chest (both things which were distracting). He could tell that fox did not like him and was even trying to play _him_, yes him! The great itsuwaribito Azako Utsuho! Utsuho could swear the pest had looked at him after getting closer to Nee-chan and _snickered_.

No, no matter what Nee-chan said, he did not believe they would get along very well.

By the way, **no** he had not been peeking at the moderately open kimono collar **nor** did he give her a pillow so that it was not as obvious when her head was more elevated, because that would imply he was actually bothered by it. Which he wasn't!

That's such a lie.

He could practically hear the voice in his head telling him his trademark line. Does it count as being tricked if he's the one tricking himself?

Anyway, Utsuho was somewhat sleep-deprived, and an hour more of respite sounded like heaven. Unfortunately, what with all the noise that came with everyone waking up, going back to sleep seemed even more troublesome.

As the girls went to do their girly shopping, Utsuho, accompanied by Hika, went to visit a shop he had glimpsed the night before when it was closed. Uzume and Chouza had said something about eating and Yakuma was doing his thing.

"Oh? Gunpowder?" said Hika when they arrived. "You low?"

"Yeah, it's been a while since I restocked."

Utsuho perused the shop, checking the quality of the powders, collecting what he liked into a bag. He paid the shop owner for his purchase and as they were walking out—

"KYAAA!"

"AH!" came the distant shouts from outside.

One itsuwaribito glanced at the other.

"Let's go see what the fun is all about."

"Sure thing."

Chaos had overtaken the town in seconds. Bandits both on horses or on their feet stampeded through, breaking store fronts, attacking people, and grabbing women. Utsuho hoped the girls were all right, trusting in Nee-chan's use of kana, Minamo's eyes, and Iwashi's resourcefulness. Hika stepped right into it all, claws read and tearing through the troublemakers. Utsuho could also imagine whoever happened across Uzume would end up knocked out in half a second flat.

Yakuma was Yakuma. He hadn't died yet, so.

A few horseless bandits came at Utsuho.

"Be careful of the bomb I just threw behind you," he said, causing the three to turn around immediately to check, allowing him to light and throw a quick-detonating bomb at their feet. The men flew backward along with the dirt and rock, passed out from the impact.

_'There are too many of them spread all over the place. I can't afford to use bombs on all of them; poisons are also out of the question with all these villagers around. I guess I'll have to take 'em down as they come and count on Uzume to take care of the rest.'_

His course of action decided, Utsuho did his best in taking out as many of the guys separated from the others with a simple punch, and the men in larger groups were given the bomb treatment.

He found Uzume cleaning out numerous men in front of a tea house, backed-up by Chouza and Yakuma…well, more like the two were standing there as Uzume took down all of the incoming enemies.

"Utsuho-sama~!" called Iwashi, whom was standing beside a rather bloodied Hika.

"Hime-san?" He did **not** see Nee-chan or Minamo there, so what was going on?

"Utsuho-sama, the others are over this way!"

Now mostly regrouped, Utsuho and the others continued to knock-out any of the bandits. Some of them were retreating already, but Utsuho would not go out of his way to track down the pursuers at the moment.

At last, the six arrived at the accessory and make-up shop, regrettably left in ruins. Many of the more fragile objects were broken, shattered, cracked, while another good portion was simply missing. Nee-chan and Minamo were nowhere to be seen, and searching was still difficult with the remaining bandits hanging around.

"Uzume, can you take care of this guys while we look around for Nee-chan and Minamo-chan?"

"I'll clear 'em up quirkily!"

"Quickly," corrected Chouza.

Walking around, Utsuho gazed at the faces of the people still around and those civilians collapsed on the ground. Uzume made quick work of the rest, which gave them more freedom to check the rest of the town.

"Nee-chan! Chibikko! Neeee-chaaaan!" he called, searching even the alleyways. "Chibikko!" Still, nothing came up. Utsuho even went back to the inn where their belongings were, yet no one was there.

"Nee-chan! Chibikko!" he yelled again outside. "Neya!"

"Rawr!"

Utsuho glanced down at Nao, alone and tugging at his pant-leg. He steadily walked where the fox cub insisted, heading out of town in the direction of—

The escaped bandits. Utsuho's eyes widened right before narrowing dangerously.

* * *

Author's After-note: Done! There. Next chapter is a bit longer and more involved. Please review any way you want. See you later then!


	8. Neya - Bandit, Merchant, and Hostess

Author's Note: Okay, so despite no one reading this, I will not give up! I'm the type of writer that will take the story to its end, rather than leaving it hanging for years and years. Each story deserves love and care! *sniffles* I've also started typing up another fanfic for _Itsuwaribito Utsuho_ except…dun, dun, duuuuuh! It's a high school AU! It was inevitable that one came out, and I really have had a lot of fun envisioning what to do with all the characters. That, and I think I can make a much spicier, interesting story between Utsuho and Neya in that setting.

* * *

**Chapter 8. Neya - A Bandit, a Merchant, and a Hostess**

A dull throbbing in her head awoke Neya. At first, she was extremely confused as to where she was, seeing as it was definitely not the town they had stopped at. Instead, she could see a river from her position tied on the ground—

Wait, tied? On the ground?

Indeed, a quick check of herself told her she was tied at the hands and ankles, the pull of the rope keeping her hands behind her back harsh and unyielding. If only they had put them in the front, she could reach her kunai and do something.

"You're awake, Neya."

Neya craned her head over her shoulder, where Minamo was also laying (though her hands were tied in the front) on her back and staring back at her. It was difficult, but Neya managed to hop onto her other side so she was face-to-face with Minamo.

"Are you okay, Minamo-chan?"

"Yes. And you, Neya? They hit you fairly hard."

"It's just a bump, I'll be fine. So," Neya glanced around her, "what exactly happened?"

"After hitting Neya-san, some of the bandits grabbed Minamo and Neya and escaped. They left many of their men behind to keep Uzume and the others occupied to gain some distance."

"But why exactly did they take us?" asked Neya, also noting all the other girls and women with them.

"Minamo is not sure exactly why, but Minamo did see something about a deal."

Those words caused Neya's heart to sink. It was never a good sign when girls and deal were in the same equation. However, she could not despair or Minamo would also be upset. The child was very apt at noting others' emotions and empathizing.

"Don't worry, Minamo-chan. Utsuho-san and the others will definitely save us if nothing else." If only Neya did not feel so useless herself, she would be more confident in being able to get her and the rest of them out of there. This is probably why Utsuho called her no good right after she pushed him out of the way of the collapsing ceiling in Ouno since she had no plan for what would happen next. "We can also keep vigilant for any chances to get away, and hopefully release of these women."

"Minamo will try hard, too."

"Alright! Time to move on!" yelled one of the bandits. A couple approached their resting space and noticed Neya.

"So you're awake!" exclaimed one. "Sorry about the bump, but I saw you attacking some of our comrades—figured it'd be best to tie you up while you slept."

Damn. Her cover was exposed going in. She would have to work at it if she was going to convince these dolts to undo her hands and grab her kunai. Neya put on her most pitiful, pained face.

"You know, these ropes are _really_ hurting my arms. I promise I won't try to run, but could you please at least tie my hands in front of me. _Please,_" she pleaded, adding a small quiver to her voice.

"Haha!" barked the other man. "What a vixen this one is!"

"Sorry, hun, but…" the one who knocked her out leaned close, leering at her face with a crooked grin, "I personally like you tied like that, with your chest all…pushed out like that."

Neya drew back scowling at the insinuation, peeved and embarrassed at her breasts that were forced outward due to her uncomfortable position. The two men broke into guffawing laughter.

"Come on, now. We're moving." One calloused and dirty hand tugged painfully on her elbow, lifting her body up onto her feet with a great deal of twisting.

All of the women were rounded up and forced to walk surrounded on all sides by the bandits. For several hours, they walked until they came to a clearing off the side of the road. Another suspicious group waited there with horses and empty wagons.

"Finally! I was wondering what was taking you so long with the merchandise!" shouted a portly, finely dressed, middle-aged man with a top knot.

"Some people interfered and beat most of my men, so don't complain," said the bandit that had ridden in front the shoal way. No doubt the leader.

"How many did you bring me?"

"Twenty-one."

"Alright, then by our agreement, you get two ryo* per woman, totaling forty-two ryo." The portly man signaled to one of his other attendants.

"Now wait a minute," interrupted the bandit leader, his fist pressing on the portly man's shoulder. "I went through a great deal of trouble to get these women, I believe that deserves a bonus."

The portly man seemed a bit shaken, but he did not back down. "Our agreement was two ryo per woman. Whatever troubles you come across in obtaining them is simply part of the expense."

"And then you get to take them with no trouble at all and sell them for double and live your high life in Yoshiwara*, so don't go telling me the trouble is part of the expense," said the leader dangerously.

The argument was clearly won.

"Fine," conceded the portly man. I'll give an extra ten ryo for your troubles for a total of fifty-two ryo. Is that enough?"

"Perfect." The leader remove his fist, then patted the man's holder laughing heartily. "Just perfect! Hand over the women!" he commanded.

The men forming the barrier around them started to shove each of them into the wagons, and the leader received several bundles of gold.

Neya worried more about what he had said. "Yoshiwara?" She was pretty sure that was the top red-light district in Edo, where young girls and women lived as geisha to low-ranked prostitutes to high-level courtesans. Were they to be sold there? Or was that just where the portly man enjoyed himself?

Either way, it sounded like they were headed to Edo, in the opposite direction of Kyoto.

**xXx**

The ride was long, boring, uncomfortable, and unhelpful. Neya still could not get out of her ropes and they were doing a number of her wrists and arms twisted behind her. Though the portly man had far fewer men, he distributed them among the wagons craftily. Two sat in the front and two in the back of each wagon ensured nothing would happen. The procession stopped several times, yet when night fell each day, another man would take over the reins while the former slept. The poor horses barely got any sleep during their breaks. What worried her even more was that this pace was rapidly putting more distance between them and Utsuho and everyone. No matter how strong Uzume was or clever Utsuho was, they still needed sleep and none of them had horses—nor the money for one.

Several days since their kidnapping, Neya and Minamo saw the gates to what gave the impression of being a mini-city. A sign posted at the top read "Yoshiwara".

Oh no, so her fears were realized. Stories about the inescapable fortress of the infamous Yoshiwara had reached her even on Nadeshiko Island. Once they were sold there, there would be no getting out. Their time was up.

Brothels lined the streets they passed through, each with women behind wooden bars overly made-up in kimonos that hung around their shoulders and obi tied in the front*. Fancy ornaments adorned the hair of many, and the red lights cast from paper lanterns glinted off of the metal pieces. Men wandered about, window-shopping around the fronts of the stores as though they were looking to buy a horse.

It churned Neya's stomach.

"Don't look, Minamo-chan."

The prophetic girl actually appeared uneasy amidst everything, curling in closer to Neya's side. It was uncommon to see her bothered by anything which made it all the more worrisome. There was a certain element to the place that likely disturbed Minamo enough so she did not calmly give her ill-boding omens.

The carts changed course into a back alley behind an affluent-looking brothel. The portly man spoke to his attendant before getting off and entering the establishment. A few minutes later, he and a stern older woman came back out.

"Get out and line up!" demanded the old woman.

The women, unable to do anything but obey, did as told before her calculating eyes. Silently, the old woman began her inspection. No pity emanated from the aged woman, no remorse or hesitation in her movements, not even a kind word to the frightened girls. She simply went down the line, studying each one intently, sometimes asking the woman or girl to turn around. The ones she nodded to, she pulled out of the line and pushed toward the brothel wall.

One girl, early in the line-up, looked to be barely thirteen and burst into tears, sniveling in front of the terrifying old woman.

"Enough. There is no crying here. It was your own bad luck for ending up here," she said, her tone broaching no room for argument. Even so, the girl could not stop her tears as she, too, was pulled back with the others. The girl's sentiments were mirrored in nearly half of the women there, each dreading the life that was now laid before them.

The old woman drew closer to Minamo and Neya. The elder girl only hoped that she ended up in the same place as Minamo. If they were separated, all bets were off to keep an eye on her. Problem was that Minamo was behind her in line. If Minamo had been first, Neya could then try to act accordingly, but she did not think Minamo could pull off being more or less appealing.

Finally, the old woman stopped in front of her. Yeesh, she would take the revenge-crazy old woman in Sakata* over this old bat lady. At least that woman had some semblance of a heart.

"Why are her hands tied behind her back unlike the others?" inquired the old woman.

"I heard that she was more feisty than the other ones, whatever that may mean, so they prepared her like so," said the portly man.

"Feisty, hm?" said the woman, a critical eyebrow rising up her forehead. "Not for long."

She grabbed Neya's shoulder with a firmer grip than she expected of the old woman's skeletal hands, then led her to the others. She made sure to give her one more firm warning glare before moving back to Minamo. Thankfully, Minamo was pleasing enough to her because she soon dragged her over, too.

By the end of the selection, only nine of the twenty-one were chosen. The remaining twelve were reloaded into the carts.

"I'll give you thirty-five ryo for these nine. Five for four of them, four for two, three for one, and two for the remaining two girls."

"Yes, of course," agreed the portly man. The money was handed over and the man greedily smiled, "Always a pleasure doing business."

"Indeed," said the old woman with a tight, cold smile. "Do be sure to come by and enjoy yourself."

"I will be looking forward to it!"

With that, the portly man left the back alley with the remaining twelve girls. _'He certainly is profiting from such trades,'_ thought Neya.

"Now." The old woman directed herself to the nine of them. "You will refer to me as 'Okami'* and will do exactly as I say. Those who disobey are punished. When you are at the front window, those not attracting enough customers will not receive meals for that day and the next. If customers are dissatisfied with you, then you will be punished. Understood?" The old woman made a pointed look at Neya with her final word.

"Yes," they mumbled dejectedly.

_'This does not look good at all.'_

* * *

Author's After-note: Wuh-oh! They've been sold into prostitution! Let's see what is on Utsuho's side of the story next chapter.

**Ryo:** Part of the old Japanese currency, and is the gold flat piece you sometimes see in anime and manga.

**Yoshiwara: **This is a real place in Japan. The shogun declared in major cities prostitution and red-light districts would be limited to one major district. In Edo, this was Yoshiwara, which pops up most in anime and manga (such as _Gintama_) compared to the districts in Kyoto and Osaka.

**Sakata: **This was the place that Neya lived and the princess there, known as Onihime, had Neya become her shadow-double.


	9. Utsuho - How Shameless!

Author's Notes: On to Utsuho's side of the story! Please review, I don't want to sound desperate, but I really would like someone to read.

* * *

**Chapter 9. Utsuho - How Shameless!**

They wasted no time in pursuing the escaped bandits. Nao was very helpful, using his nose to pick up traces of Neya's scent. Their main concern was how long would the scent trail remain before it became overridden with others, and then tracking them would become nigh impossible.

If only they had Pochi! Pochi, like many tanuki seemed to, had acute hearing and would be able to pick up people's voices while Nao sniffed them out. Minamo would have also been ideal for the situation since she did not need any of that physical evidence to find out where they went.

Too bad she was _with_ Neya.

The search was slower than he would have liked, and Nao was starting to have trouble smelling anything leaving them to speculate on where they might have gone.

"The villagers had noted quite a few of their women missing, some even seeing bandits intentionally grabbed and kidnapped them," said Yakuma. "So, either they took them for their own pleasure—"

"But Minamo is a small girl!" shouted Uzume. "They didn't grab little girls for their measure too, right!?"

"That's pleasure, and no, they did not go through all that trouble to get women to pleasure themselves," said Chouza.

"Which means they're likely being sold as prostitutes for _other_ men," concluded Hika, his arms crossed behind his head once again. "They stand to make a lot of money selling women into prostitution."

"Aran. How dirty and _not_ beautiful," said Iwashi.

"Why are you saying that so easily, Hika!?" yelled Utsuho, followed by a punch to Yakuma's face.

"Why are you hitting me!?"

"Okaan*, where'd they go!?"

"Do you really think now's the time to be joking around Utsuho!?"

"Always!" Another punch.

"Hey, hey. Focus, we have to focus," reminded Chouza. "Not only are they in danger of being sold, but both of them holds a kokonotsu treasure. We want to get to them before someone figures that out. Though I'm not too worried about Minamo losing hers since it won't come off and it protects her, but Ane-chan*…"

"That would be a problem for Nee-yan," Iwashi said.

"Where would they be headed then?" Hika asked, bringing the discussion back on point.

"The major red-districts would be our best bet," deduced Yakuma. "At those places, women would be sold highest. In Kyoto, there's Shimabara, Edo's Yoshiwara, and Osaka's Shinmachi."

"You know all the names for such places, Okaan!? How shameless!" said Utsuho, hitting Yakuma again.

"It's not like I've ever been to any of those places!"

Nonetheless, Utsuho was already no longer listening.

"Osaka is out of the question since it's so far away, and Kyoto is also unlikely given that we've been following them southeast, not southwest. They seem to be heading toward Edo."

"Then to Edo we go."

**xXx**

In concern for Nee-chan and Minamo's safety safety, the six travelers kept a steady pace of jogging, walking, jogging, break, jogging, walking, jogging, and so on. Nao's leg as much better according to Yakuma, enabling the fox to run with them. The fox cub kept at the front of the group, at times trying to run ahead when they walked or stopped to eat. He began to get used to taking breaks quickly, though, because at those times he would be fed or given water. In place of Neya's absence, Nao would stick by Yakuma mostly, whom took care of him very well in Nee-chan's absence.

Day after day passed by in such a rushed manor. The first day saw most of them run ragged (even Iwashi) except the muscle-headed Uzume. Fortunately, with each passing day, the soreness became second nature and their pace even increased with longer running time and shorter walks.

Utsuho was glad to run until he was exhausted by the time night came. He worried what he would have thought if he was lying awake and restless; mores, he feared what his dreams would show him if he had not been consistently falling sleep like a rock and waking up the next morning as if only seconds had passed. He recalled the night he saw Nee-chan and Yakuma embracing was filled with dreams of her blatantly kissing the doctor in front of him, leaving him extremely uncomfortable. The night he had been staring at her without her knowledge, the same night he had come to…_appreciate_ some of her _features_ more caused him to be teased by her little slips of her kimono, each time showing a bit more skin.

He did **not** want to start dreaming about her in the prospect of becoming a prostitute. Straight, plain sleep was good.

**xXx**

Two weeks passed from the incident in town. All of them stood at the gates of the red-light district slightly separated from Edo-proper. On any normal day, any one of them would be thrilled to run into Edo and explore the chatty, but that day was not normal. This much was an obvious fact with two of their companions absent from their company.

"Hime-san, stay out here with Hika," Utsuho said. Bringing in such a pretty, and erotic, girl like Iwashi would be asking for more trouble than he would like.

"Yes, Utsuho-sama~."

"I'll take care of her, Utsuho-kun."

"The rest of us going in, Thread Eyes?" asked Chouza.

"Yeah, the four of us will go in and look for Nee-chan and Chibikko. If you find them, return near the front gate, out of general site and wait for the others. If you don't find them, head to the same spot in three hours."

Chouza, Uzume, and Yakuma nodded. Surely that was simple enough of a plan even for Uzume.

Each of them went separate ways once they passed the gate. Utsuho immediately concentrated on scanning through the wooden bar windows and crowd, just in case, searching for that pale sakura-colored hair.

The women hanging near the bars of the windows would coo and beckon to him, promising a wonderful night he'd never forget, sensation he's never felt, and so on.

Whoever came up with the idea of those front windows and forcing women to attract men for money was uncool. He knew at a least that an unprofitable prostitute would likely be punished for wasting the owner's money—the women, in fear of this, grew accustomed to attracting and bedding men with all their might.

Utsuho could not really see Nee-chan going quietly. No matter how useless she was sometimes, she was still an itsuwaribito. Only other itsuwaribito got the better of an itsuwaribito…he was convinced she would not allow herself to be taken advantage of.

It would be nice if he was absolutely sure of that, but Minamo was also there, which may make it harder for Nee-chan because she would do anything to protect her.

The search was proving fruitless on his end, no matter how many of the numerous brothels he searched. What if she was already with a customer? Oh, he did not even want to finish that thought or he would hurl up what little lunch he had eaten earlier. His eyes were getting weary straining them for so long, and the designated three hours was nearly up. Somewhat disappointedly, he headed back to the entrance of Yoshiwara.

"Thread Eyes."

Utsuho looked over to the side, where Chouza relaxed behind a wooden post near a teashop. He did not look back at him, coming off as nonchalant. Inconspicuously, Utsuho settled at a table and asked for two teas. Chouza slid into the bench across from him.

"Find anything?" Utsuho asked first.

"Yeah. Found where Ane-chan is."

Relief unfurled the knot in his stomach.

"Oh, look," said Chouza, glancing over Utsuho to someone in the street. "Uzume, Doc."

Yakuma managed to find them, likely with the help of Nao heading toward them without any prompting. Uzume waved wildly to Utsuho's dismay, although it seemed to have been generally ignored by passersby.

"I crossed paths with Uzume, so we explored a little together."

"So useless, Okaan. Chouza actually found something while you were babysitting Bird Brain."

"You did, Chouza!?" asked Uzume excitedly.

"I saw Ane-chan in the window at one of the more high-end brothels. I only saw her from afar, but that was definitely her hair."

"Why didn't you go closer and talk to her?" Uzume questioned naively.

"Because, Bird Brain, if he had, they would have known she has people here looking for her and it would raise their guard."

"Be that as it may…" Chouza started cautiously, "pretty soon after I saw her, a guy came and picked her."

Utsuho froze. Beside him, Yakuma also ceased fussing over a snack he was feeding to Nao.

"…"

"I've got a plan."

* * *

Author's After-note: Utsuho's apparently ranked number one in intelligence in a character poll done by the author, so I shall exercise that to my advantage. Quick plan-making and execution.

**Okaan: **This is the equivalent of "Okaa-san" in Utsuho's dialect, which means "Mother." He calls Yakuma this from time to time when fooling around.

**Ane-chan: **A more formal way of saying "Nee-chan", which means "Big sister."

**Shimabara/Shinmachi: **Actual former major red-light districts of Kyoto and Osaka respectively.

Also, if anyone looks at a map, Osaka is practically directly south of Kyoto, and Edo is east of Kyoto. The town they were heading from initially was in the mountain areas northwest of Edo.


	10. Neya - Customers, Sometimes…

Author's Note: I'm just zooming through what I've already written so I can develop the stuff after chapter 15. I don't honestly know how long this story is going to be. We'll see.

Did anyone know that typing out a story on your phone with the swipe feature is actually pretty fun? I love imagining how Utsuho and Neya would act toward each other in a high school environment. Just what is so enchanting and fun about high schools?

Enough of my jabbering. On to the story.

* * *

**Chapter 10. Neya - Customers, Sometimes…**

Several days had been given to the new girls to be cleaned up, taught, and do basic chores. Minamo, being so young, was to only do chores and train until she was old enough to become a courtesan. The other veteran girls were saying she had the potential to climb the ranks of courtesans to oiran* if she tried.

Either way, it saved her from having to worry about them trying to take off her kimono and finding that it would not come off.

Neya, on the other hand, was not so lucky. Okami had confiscated her kanzashi*, the Peacock Feather kokonotsu. She promised that if Neya behaved quietly, she would one day return it once she had earned enough. On the other hand, if she _did not_ behave, Okami would sell it immediately. They could easily retrieve it if the old bat had it, but if it was sold, looking for it would be ten times harder.

Meanwhile, for the most part, Neya tried to be indifferent to Minamo, as if the two simply coincidentally happened to be kidnapped at the same place and time. That way, Okami would not think to use Minamo as leverage against Neya nor vice versa.

The day the newcomers were told they were ready to be put on display, Neya was all nerves. She had managed to hide her kunai by bundling a cloth around them carefully and calling it her pillow, but in the rooms they were to entertain the customers in, she would have no way of retrieving them.

What was worse was her outfit. Like all the others she had seen, her kimono had the obi* tied at the front and her collar hung past her shoulders. That brought up some recent memories with Utsuho and Uzume, yet these were quickly chased away. Her pale sakura-colored hair was done up in a loose bun with a single comb stuffed in.

In that breezy, yet somehow stuffy cage, she sat peering out at the passing men. In the beginning, there were enough other women to duck behind and avoid notice. Inevitably, that luck changed with the onset of late afternoon and the wall of people thinned. For a moment, Neya thought she saw familiar green hair passing on the other side of the street. Hoping that her assumption was right and everyone had found them, she calmed her racing mind. It would do little good to act out and let Okami and their watchers know her friends were there. Her eyes closed, reassured that her and Minamo would not be for Yoshiwara long.

"That one."

Her eyes snapped open as a man, likely twice her age by the looks of it, moderately dressed and groomed, pointed right at her with a lecherous grin on his face. How could she have forgotten where she was? She was not at all in the clear yet! Before she could react, one of the spokesmen for the shop went back and spoke to another who stood by the door to the cage. He opened it and looked right at her.

"You," he pointed, "come out."

"W-wait," she stuttered, turning back to the customer. "You didn't pick me, right? That's just a silly misunderstanding, right?"

The man huffed a bit, angry.

"I meant _you_! Are your whores all this undisciplined!?" complained the customer to the two male workers.

"Sakura," came the voice of her current most-hated person. Neya personally thought Sakura was a pretty name, but now that it was her calling-girl name, she _hated_ it.

Obediently, Neya stood up and shakily walked out of the cage. The man was led away first, leaving Okami to have a word with _Sakura_.

"Remember what I said. Do not cause any trouble." The unspoken threat hung in the air.

Okami then led Neya to one of the rooms upstairs, far more nicely furnished than the ones on the ground floor where the girls slept, and walked away. According to her training, she was to bring tea and sake* on a tray with some snacks, knock on the door while kneeling, bow, and enter. Realizing the old bat had expected her to grab the tray of refreshments downstairs and come back up to the room, Neya took her time in going down the stairs…entering the kitchen…asking for a tray, then pretending to drop a cup because she was "just too clumsy"…steadily walking back up the stairs…and finally arriving at the door.

Knock, knock.

"Please excuse me.*" Open. Bow. Stand, walk in with tray.

"Took you long enough!" grumped the man.

"I am terribly sorry," Neya said sweetly, plotting her course of action. "You may call me Sakura, dear customer*."

"Hehheh…you don't often find girls with hair like yours."

"Really?" she innocently asked, pouring some sake. "You must travel quite a lot. Do you see many different kinds of women?"

"Yes! I go all over the country to do work for my lord. He holds me in high regard."

"Dear customer must be a magnificent vassal, then, to be so trusted."

A cup was emptied, but she did not wait long to refill it. Counting to ten after he finished the cup, Neya silently offers more sake to the man.

"I'll likely be promoted in rank soon, too. With a couple more missions, I'm sure it'll happen. Then!" he takes a large gulp from his cup and smacks his lips, holding out his cup for more. "I will be able to come visit more often. Would that make you happy, Sakura-san?"

"My, how promising," flattered Neya. Cup emptied again, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,…10. Refill.

"I could even get you prettier combs for your pretty hair. Hmmm?" A rough hand rose up to a stray bang not confined by the bun, stroking the light pink lock as his fingertips barely grazed her cheek. Neya kept her face pleasant, ignoring the urge to pull away from the man's touch. With what little experience she had around people, she had learned that when a someone makes a commotion toward another, the other person will act out rashly to get their way. Advertising that she did not want to be with the customer would likely cause him to push himself on her more forcefully.

"Thank you very much, dear customer, that is too considerate toward me. Would you mind telling me about your travels? I do not get out much, you see…"

"Of course! I have plenty to share!" boasted the man. "You've probably never been to the capitol…" He kept jabbering on and on about the places he had been, steadily becoming more drunk. Always counting to ten before pouring more sake so he would not think anything of her gently offering more and more sake, she continued to nod and smile at the right points, then follow by asking more questions.

"S-ssoo, then…we had to rrriiide on out…to—where wazz it again?" slurred the man three-and-a-half hours later. All of the bottles of sake Neya had prepared for her plan were at long last out. The man was so incoherent, all in all, that it did not matter from what she could tell.

"I don't know, dear customer. However, it seems we are out of sake, so I will go fetch some more." Neya stood to leave, but her departure was halted by his hand on her wrist. For a drunk man, he undeniably held on quite firmly.

"I dint come heeere…just to jrink sake with a giirl…" a fierce tug brought her down trapped between the floor and his body. "I came…ta sleep with a girl."

The sake-reeking man leaned forward to place a sloppy kiss on her (untouched!) lips. Panicking, Neya shifted her head to the side and jammed a knee as hard as she could into his gut. The action made him groan and nearly collapse on her. Struggling with his weight, Neya pushed him off her onto the floor next to her and before he could get up or yell, she elbowed him in the chest with all her might. A forced wheeze exuded from his mouth, and the man was out.

She exhaled a sigh of relief and satisfaction as she leaned back from a job well done. Now to just relax here–

Knock, knock.

Her hopes were dashed spectacularly in mere seconds.

"Dear customer, are you finding everything to your liking?"

Darn it! It was the old bat, Okami! Nothing to do but lie.

"H-he's asleep," she answered. _'Asleep sounds much better than "knocked out".'_

The door slid open, and those wrinkled, fierce eyes surveyed the room and its occupants. Each second drew her brows down further to bunch angrily at her brow.

Looks like someone was not happy.

"Getting the customers drunk until they pass out is _not_ what you do as a courtesan. If they wanted to do that, they can simply go to a bar and waste their money there," clipped out Okami from tightened lips.

Neya, knowing that was the time to come across "ashamed", did her best impression of the emotion she could. Thankfully the old bat only blamed the sake for the man's unconscious state. Who knows what kind of trouble she would be in otherwise.

"To make up for tonight," continued the old bat, "you will _properly_ see to the next customer."

Neya's eyes widened. She wasn't off for the night? And she had to somehow deal with another lecherous pig that likes to hear themselves talk?

"This time, that means you **will **use your body to please him. I'll know if you don't. You will have to get over doing this with men eventually, so stop avoiding it. I will have some girls clean up this room and bring a tray up with tea and **one** bottle of sake, no more than that unless he asks for it. He is waiting in the room at the end of the hall. Do not enter until you have everything. And do hurry over, I must get this customer out."

She was doomed.

The wood groaned grudgingly under her feet as she gingerly stepped down the hallway. Her prime plan was ruined, so now what? And that damn bat knew about the sake scheme, meaning she could not pull it off again for the night unless if her customer was a heavy drinker—in that case, then it was unlikely he would be knocked over any time soon. The door stood in front of her forebodingly, as if to signal her doom. The end to her days of maidenhood. Waiting turned her into a nervous wreck thinking about the kind of man that was on the other side. Would he be young or old? Skinny or fat? Ugly or maybe even the slightest bit decent? She doubted that. The old bat was trying to punish her, there was no way it would be a decent customer.

"Sakura."

Minamo came walking toward her like a child ghost with her soundless steps, holding that damnable tray. The girl gently set it down beside Neya, nodded her head, and silently retreated back downstairs.

Was Minamo-chan really the one to seal her doom!? Oh, how cruel the world was at times.

Oxygen tried to escape her as she took deep breaths to calm herself so her heart did not beat its way out of her chest. Kneeling with her eyes closed, she knocked twice.

"Please excuse me." _Slide_. Bow.

Carefully picking up the tray of refreshments and snacks, Neya stepped into the room, closed the door, and set the tray down, bracing herself as she glanced up at her customer.

"Yo, Sakura-chan!"

* * *

Author's After-note: There's a funny little coincidence about that last bit I did not notice until after I wrote it. I'll let you guys know next chapter, though.

**Oiran: **A courtesan that was knowledgeable in the arts and scholarly matters, and worked more to entertain customers by playing instruments, doing calligraphy, dancing, tea ceremony, and conversing as opposed to always sleeping with them. They were generally very beautiful, and could even turn down customers that they disliked.

**Kanzashi: **These are the tuning fork-like combs that Neya always wears. She had two initially in her pigtails, but now she only has the single kokonotsu that she puts in her ponytail.

**Obi: **The long, thick cloth used to tie a kimono closed that women wore. Normally, these would be tied in a bow in the back, but prostitutes had them in the front (from what I heard once or twice a long time ago) so that customers could easily untie them and undress the woman.

**Sake: **I know everyone knows this is Japanese rice wine but everyone (and I mean near about everyone that speaks English!) mispronounces this. It is sa-kay, not sa-key. The "e" in Japanese makes the "ay" sound like in "okay". Just had to get that out.

**Please excuse me.: **What Japanese say after knocking on the door twice (unlike our three times). It is "Shitsurei shimasu" which literally means "I will be rude/intrude."

**Dear customer: **This may seem weird that I am putting this, that's why I want to explain. When talking about customers, they call them "Okyaku-sama" or the less formal "Okyaku-san" which means "Dear customer." Japanese tend to use titles when they can instead of names. It makes things simple for me when writing because then I don't need to make a whole bunch of names up. Whew!


	11. Neya - Second Time's the Charm?

Author's Note: I had been boggled on how to do this part of the story dramatically enough, and I realized I could just change up the order of the POV so Neya got two in a row. Problem solved!

* * *

**Chapter 11. Neya - Second Time's the Charm?**

"Yo, Sakura-chan!"

Neya's face fell into utter shock.

There sat Utsuho, hair undone and (deliciously) messy, leaning back on his hands, a huge smirk plastered on his face.

"Utsuho!?" she screamed in a whisper.

"Hey, don't go acting so familiarly with me on my first time, Sakura-chan~" teased the itsuwaribito. Whether he meant it by his first supposed time sleeping with a girl or calling him "Utsuho" without an honorific even though "Sakura" has never met him, Neya did not know and chose not to dwell on it. His face dropped the smirk as he became more serious, staring at her intently. "I heard you had a customer before this."

"Oh!" she said, broken free from her surprise. "Y-yeah, I did. But I got him really drunk and knocked him out."

"Did he do anything before that?" he asked, expression darkening even further.

"Not really, he just grabbed me and tried to hold me down, and that's when I hit him. Now, though, Okami wants me to take another customer and e-entertain them _properly_." Just talking about doing something like _that_ with _Utsuho_ of all people brought a bright blush to Neya's face. "I just didn't expect it to be Utsuho-san."

"You're so useless, getting caught like this. You wouldn't be in this situation otherwise," pouted Utsuho, returning to his lax demeanor.

"I'm sorry…" Truly, she felt horribly guilty about it already, yet she knew he would say something about it. She even got Minamo involved. "What are we going to do?"

"We—" Utsuho began, when his head shot up and his eyes snapped open.

The world flipped on its side for a moment in Neya's mind, and her body tingled all over in sensation.

"Is everything going well, dear customer?" The door slid open revealing the old bat Okami kneeling. And the sight she was seeing was likely quite more than she expected.

Utsuho had Neya pinned on the floor, one hand riding up the kimono on her leg pulling on it to wrap around his waist, the other hand gripping the low-hanging collar at her breast as if to pull it away, and his face only a couple inches from hers. Every bit of skin that Utsuho touched, every inch of his body that pressed against her own through their clothes was electrifying, his soft breaths on her face so warm they peeked each nerve to attention; everything combined sent a searing heat throughout her body and charged her heart into pounding against her ribcage harder than when she first came in. This time it was not in trepidation, though, only excitement.

Above her, Utsuho glance, no, _glared_ at Okami and spoke coldly. "I was expecting to be alone for the night. It's _rude_ to interrupt."

Okami's face seemed to pale just a shade, and even amidst the flurry of sensation she was experiencing, Neya could not help but feel smug about the old bat's fear. _'Take that!'_

"I am terribly sorry. I will leave you be now." The door closed, and once again, Neya was all alone with Utsuho.

He twisted his head back toward her.

"Had to convince her to leave us alone for the rest of the night."

"Ah," she weakly pushed out, what with air being so hard to come by with him right above her! It was not fair how much cooler he looked without his bandanna on. She could not bring herself to tell him to get off. The one boy, more like man, that she bore such deep feelings for was so close to her for the first time, it made her heart ache from more than excitement. The longing increased despite him being right there, so much so Neya believed the only way to ease that longing was to grab hold of him and just keep him with her forever.

In spite of that, he apparently returned to reality faster than her. With quick, precise movements, the hands on her leg and at her chest that were dangerously close to exposing her pulled back, and the warm, firm body that was too overdressed for her taste lost contact with her. Utsuho moved out from between her legs to settle himself with his back facing her.

"You might want to fix yourself up, you know."

Oh wow! She could not believe she had been stupidly sitting there, kimono barely hanging onto her and had not thought to make herself a little more decent. Hopefully he did not see her as desperate. On the contrary, Neya might have very well been desperate. After all, there were many times she thought a moment with her and Utsuho tangled together passionately would never happen. A few tugs here and there and she was back to normal—or as normal as she could with that expository kimono.

"Alright."

Utsuho turned back around. His gaze fixed solely on her head, particularly her hair.

"Where are the kanzashi?"

"Okami has it, though I don't know where." She paused as she went over the situation in her mind. "How are we going to get it back and get out of here?"

"I've got a plan, but I'll need you and Chibikko to go along with me to execute it."

* * *

Author's After-note: Okay, so the coincidence about that first part! Some may or may not know about Utsuho being akin to a darker and smarter Naruto Uzumaki expy, which made it all the more coincidental when I decided to make Neya's call-girl name "Sakura" because of her hair and have Utsuho add "-chan" to it. So we have a Naruto expy (Utsuho) calling out "Sakura-chan" to a pink-haired girl (Neya). Totally unplanned, I promise!


	12. Utsuho - Candles Are So Handy

Author's Note: In celebration of finishing my GRE subject test on Saturday, I'm writing up this chapter! Ugh, I slept about 15 hours after coming back from that, and I am so relieved that it's over! Anyway, this is a much longer chapter. For some odd reason, I find writing Utsuho's POV more fun than Neya's. It makes elaborating easier, partially because he has had more character development than Neya.

* * *

**Chapter 12. Utsuho - Candles Are So Handy**

The plan took some last-minute elaborate setting up, yet it was well worth it. Among the six of them (he dragged Hika and Iwashi in on it), they made preparations to rescue Nee-chan and Minamo. Part of it, however, consisted of going in as Nee-chan's customer. For that, Utsuho borrowed everyone's money, including Yakuma's single gold ryo.

When everything was ready, he approached the brothel Chouza had told him about. Nee-chan was still not in the window front, meaning she was likely with a customer.

"Welcome, dear customer," greeted an elderly stern woman. He assumed that was the hostess, okami, from what he had read about these sort of places.

"Good evening," he said pleasantly. With his hair down, Utsuho had always noticed people had taken him more seriously than when he pulled it up. This woman was no different.

"Have you seen any girls to your liking?"

"Well," he slowly drawled out, as if deliberating, "I've been looking around all day trying to decide on one, and I have noticed one with pale sakura-colored hair. Was I mistaken?"

The woman tensed a little. Never let a customer go was what she was likely thinking.

"No, you were not mistaken. We have a girl that fits that description. Currently she is waiting on another customer."

"Hmmm…" He made sure to keep up the act of sounding dissatisfied, yet he fully meant it deep down. "I will wait ten minutes, no more. If it takes any longer, I shall take my business elsewhere." Utsuho flashed the single ryo from the rim of his bag, allowing it to fall with a clink back onto the other money. "Until then, I'll grab some water if you don't mind."

The woman was too flabbergasted to stop him from going farther into the store toward the back. He looked around quickly for Minamo, and entered any room he could find, surprising a good number of women. Minamo was passing by from the kitchen to another room as he saw her. He quietly told her the plan and what she should do, grabbed a swig of water, then headed back to the front where the old woman stood.

"This way, please, dear customer," she said, leading him up the stairs and into a private room. As soon as she left, Utsuho examined his surroundings, figuring them into his plan. He sat down, relaxing and waiting for Nee-chan. There was not way one of these rich bozos had had their way with her, and if they had…

Well, let's just say he would not regret what he was about to do.

Knock, knock. "Please excuse me."

The door slid open and Utsuho could swear his heart stopped. There was Neya, bowing to him with that revealing kimono and those slender, smooth shoulders Uzume had gone on about. Oh no, play it cool.

The silly girl was not even looking at him as she brought the tray in and set it down, closing the door behind her. Finally, when she _did_ open her eyes and look at him in the face, the expression of shock was perfect! He could not resist teasing her.

"Yo, Sakura-chan!"

"Utsuho!?" Wow, not even an honorific, she was really shocked.

"Hey, don't go acting so familiarly on my first time, Sakura-chan~" he teased. However, remembering that she just got back from another customer, he searched for any indication that she had been touched, yet found none. "I heard you had a customer before this."

"Oh!" she said, clearly trying to get over her surprise. "Y-yeah, I did. But I got him really drunk and knocked him out."

Good, good, like he thought. You don't become an itsuwaribito and allow people to take advantage of you, after all.

"Did he do anything at all?" Utsuho pressed, still wanting to make sure there was nothing else. He could spot a lie if she tried to tell him one, and it felt as if there was a little more to the story than she was letting on.

"Not really, he just grabbed me and tried to hold me down, and that's when I hit him. Now, though, Okami wants me to take another customer and e-entertain them _properly_." Nee-chan turned red as she spoke—it did not take a genius to realize how innocent she was, and the insinuations of Okami wanting her to sleep with him were undoubtedly embarrassing. It was a good thing he came when he did, instead of allowing another man to take his place…which he _obviously_ meant in the way that she would not have to sleep with anyone, not the other way where _he_ would be the one to do the deed. The thought did not occur to him at all whatsoever.

"I just didn't expect it to be with Utsuho-san."

They needed to get out and soon.

"You're so useless, getting caught like this. You wouldn't be in this situation otherwise," he complained, putting on a disappointed pout to return to some form of normalcy. As long as he insulted her, he would be able to veer his thoughts away from other things.

"I'm sorry…" Nee-chan said, guilt lacing her tone. "What are we going to do?"

"We—" he started, ready to explain the plan in short detail, but he heard soft footsteps padding down the hall toward them. His racing thoughts reminded him that the hostess was displeased with Nee-chan and would like to keep him a happy customer, meaning she would be particularly watchful of them, meaning…

His quick reflexes enabled Utsuho to yank Nee-chan under his body, and he shoved his hands in the most obviously intimate places: on the bare skin of the back of her thigh, pushing the kimono hem up messily and fixing her leg around his waist; the other hand gripping the collar of that damn revealing neckline just above her pert breast. He held himself above her, his face hovering over hers.

The door slid open after that nosy woman asked if everything was to his liking. He could not hold himself back from outright glaring at her.

"I was expecting to be alone for the night. It's _rude_ to interrupt," he said cooly.

"I am terribly sorry. I will leave you be now." The woman, shaken from his harsh demeanor, closed the door and retreated based on the sound of her footsteps. He glanced back down at Nee-chan in the awkward position he had pulled them into.

"Had to convince her to leave us alone for the rest of the night."

"Ah," Nee-chan said breathily. God, he was reigning in every bit of control he had in that position! Utsuho noted that her hair was up in a bun unlike her usual ponytail, so the beautiful tress were unable to splay out around her as he always thought they would.

He should really stop then and there, but the actual feel of her skin was better than he imagined. If he just inched his hand up a few more inches inward on her leg, she would be moaning his name. And the other hand needed only to tug upward to reveal her doubtless milky white globe…with Neya gazing at him so intensely, a blush that outdid her hair covering her cheeks, and pert lips so ready to be attacked.

Down below, Utsuho took extra care not to settle too close to her on account of his noticeable problem in his pants. On closer inspection, the teenager saw two hardened nipples beneath her kimono. He recalled in those texts about reproduction and sex he had read that that was a sign a woman was either cold or aroused…

Utsuho pulled away from Nee-chan sitting with his back facing her, and his "problem" completely out of sight.

"You might want to fix yourself up, you know," he told her while adjusting his own pants indiscreetly. They had to think about the plan, and both of them being aroused and at each other in a brothel was _not_ part of it.

"Alright."

Carefully, trying to be as indifferent as possible and look at anything other than her chest or legs or lips, Utsuho fixated his gaze on her hair.

"Where's the kanzashi?" he asked to distract them both.. He knew the hostess had taken them since Minamo told him about it, but he could not allow silence. Silence tended to fill itself with other things.

"Okami has it, though I don't know where," she said, taking on an expression of deep thought. "How are we going to get it back and get out of here?"

"I've got a plan, but I'll need you and Chibikko to go along with me to execute it."

"Okay, what do I need to do? And how are you going to let Minamo-chan know?"

"I already took care of that. At midnight, we'll hear a signal from the others, and they'll start running around town making a commotion. We'll follow along with the act and run out the building. The rest of the plan will already be in motion. And Chibikko already knows where your kokonotsu is, so she'll grab that in the confusion and head out."

"Midnight is around another three hours, though. What will we do until then?"

"Prepare."

Utsuho pulled off his shoes. Nee-chan's face froze as she began to comprehend what he had in mind.

From his shoes and socks, gunpowder streamed onto the floor. He was slightly amazed no one noticed all the gunpowder he trailed through the brothel in the different rooms downstairs and upstairs, too. Gathering most of what he had left, Utsuho lined the walls and corner farthest from the door, with a small trail leading past a candle stand to the door. The bottle of sake was also used to soak the walls above the gunpowder.

"Gotta get more sake for the windowsill and roof," Utsuho said, noting the overhang of the first floor's roof right outside his window. Realizing he'd probably have to look really disheveled, he pulled off his tight black undershirt, opened his kimono more to show his chest and abs, then vigorously mussed-up his hair. He acted like he did not notice Nee-chan turning red again, but it was hard to miss when her eyes were drilling holes through his abdomen. "I'll be back."

Leaving the room with Nee-chan was like a breath of fresh air. So much tension had soaked into him in just those few minutes with her. Now he was not unfamiliar to having urges, because he had plenty of those in the early stages of puberty. Why, he would increase his pranks by three times on the girls his age in the village in order to get their attention. Utsuho had even shared his first kiss with the one had had a bit of a crush on.

This lasted for maybe two years or so, but after that, he refocused back on tricking everyone, learning new material he could use, etc. Essentially, he had, for the most part, gotten over the worst of it.

Or so he thought. After traveling so long with Nee-chan, in his mind, since there was not a lot of attraction on his end, nothing more would come of it. When she had confessed to him so suddenly, and _very_ clearly, he was thrown for a loop and extremely uncomfortable THe thought had not crossed his mind until she brought it up, and at that time, he simply had no interest. Even when Iwashi joined them, he became sure that his body was over the raging hormones if he was not reacting to _that _kind of woman walking around. Nor did he have any problem when Hikae started to show an interest in the princess, or protectiveness at least toward the two girls. And he was not all that bothered when Nee-chan patted Uzume's head after Kuroha and Saiha's deaths. He honestly only threw that bucket at Uzume in the hot spring because he believed she deserved some privacy—he was a gentleman in his own right.

Ever since he saw Nee-chan hugging Yakuma, he supposed he felt a bit betrayed. She had confessed to _him_, not that busybody.

Yet when she had come into the room he had just been in, right after some douche bag stranger had tried to touch her—! It may have been an act to fool the hostess, but for Utsuho, his once dormant hormones had reawaken with a force, demanding he make every inch of her _his_, no questions asked. That formerly indifferent relationship he had with Muito Neya skyrocketed into intense, sensual territory. Heck, he would probably frighten her with how fast he went from one extreme into the other. Unlike those innocent kisses he shared in his pre-teen years with that one village girl, his body burned hotter than ever, ached with every step! to dominate Neya. If she had confessed to him that day in the Village of Dolls and he was thinking like this, he would have sent Pochi to Yakuma, found a private enough spot in the woods, and taken her against a tree, pure and simple. His thoughts were becoming a jumbled mess, which was bad because he needed to execute this plan.

But was this him reacting to being more exposed to the opposite sex? When he returns with Nee-chan and Minamo in tow, would he see Iwashi and think of her he same way? He'd have to wait and see, but for now, Utsuho had to get some more sake.

He had a building to burn, after all.

Utsuho made it to the kitchen again, unimpeded (not without some glances from the female workers, though), demanding two more bottles of sake. While wandering around he checked to make sure the gunpowder he had leaked was still properly in place before sneaking back up to the second floor.

One deep breath…two deep breaths…okay! Once more, he slid that flimsy door open, preparing himself to enter that room with Nee-chan sitting quietly on her knees. She looked so temptingly innocent looking at him without a worry like she was, completely trusting. Man, he did quite a job in convincing her he wasn't attracted to her in the last year. Great.

He crossed the room to the windowsill, soaking the wood in the alcohol, then trailing out to the roof, spreading over a wide enough area on the shingles. One of the ceramic shingles he pulled up carefully to put some sake in the wood beneath. It would be enough to get that area going for sure.

Both of his bottles were emptied, prompting him to face the object of his body's torment. Utsuho wondered what he reaction would be if he straightforwardly kissed her there and then. His thoughts veered further into his fantasy following a kiss, all probably too graphic for the girl. She may have lived on an island of exiled itsuwaribito, but Utsuho doubted she was much exposed to male advances as the main chief and caretaker of the children and less harmful men. As for when she was the Onihime's kagemusha, forget male advances, she likely had next to no human contact.

A sudden thought struck Utsuho. Nee-chan was still in that low-cut kimono, and they would be running out at midnight among crowds of people. He certainly did not want her to be exposed like that to so many. So, he slipped his black undershirt back on, and tossed his kimono top to Nee-chan.

"Wear that for now 'til you get your own clothes back," he told her, leaning against the windowsill in his best attempt to be his normal self. If he kept practicing, it should become natural for him. For all he knew, his urges could all be a phase.

"Thanks," she replied, slipping her arms through the sleeves while tugging the hem across her front closed. The broken-up white design on the left shoulder sprawled more against her tinier body, reaching halfway across her chest, and the sleeves draped over her hands. The effect was more cute than sensual, yet it did little to ease the satisfaction he felt seeing her swimming in his clothes.

Nee-chan darted her eyes awkwardly around.

"Want to play a game while we wait?" she asked suddenly. His interest was just as easily peaked. A game would be fun.

"What game?"

"I don't know." She paused, placing a finger to her chin in thought. "Does Truth or Dare sound good?"

"Sure," he agreed. In actuality, that had been his favorite game at the village, ironically enough. He never picked 'truth', of course. That was no fun. "Loser who can neither tell a truth or do the dare owes the winner any one order."

Nee-chan blanched. She knew she was going to lose before they even started, not that he blamed her for thinking so—they both knew she was not as creative as him.

"Then, I get to go first!" demanded the girl. "Truth or Dare?"

"Dare." No question there.

"Um, let's see…I dare you to…do a handstand while making noises like a monkey!"

Hah! Maybe this would be more fun than he initially thought. Complying with her otherwise humiliating demand had it been someone else, Utsuho balanced the weight of his body on his hands, going "Oo oo! Ah ah!" for a minute. When that was done, he turned right-side-up wearing a mischievous grin on his face.

"My turn. Truth or Dare?"

"Hmm…truth!"

"Have you ever farted in front of a lot of people, and when?" he said, his smile growing more devious by the second.

"You just had to ask something like that, didn't you, Utsuho-san?" she complained. Finding out about embarrassing situations was always the way to go when facing truth-tellers. "It was in front of the villagers on Nadeshiko Island right before we were going on patrol," came the mumbled admittance.

"Hahaha!" laughed Utsuho, not holding back in making fun of her. "You can't control yourself, huh? Hahaha!"

"You're laughing too much, Utsuho-san! Truth or Dare!?"

"Dare!"

Nee-chan huffed as she crossed her arms.

"Then, I dare you to do the splits!" That wiped the amusement from his face and made him pause. Hesitantly, he stretched his legs apart, slowly spreading farther and farther until he was at about 140˚. His face screwed tightly in concentration as he tried to push a little farther. Nee-chan wore an aha-see! expression as he struggled. Teeth clenched, hands straining to hold him up from falling over, Utsuho gained another half-inch closer to the ground…

And then he sank all the way down to do a 180˚ split. Nee-chan's jaw dropped and, no, he was not in pain.

"Fooled ya," said Utsuho.

"W-wha—? How?"

"I practiced the splits when I was a kid. Being flexible is really useful." His overly confident smirk of victory drew a frown from the girl. "Truth or Dare?"

"Dare."

Hmm…what to make her do? Half of his mind was occupied with funny and amusing things she could do, while the other half was bridging on taking advantage of the situation for his own benefit.

"Drink up some tea…" he paused for the punchline," …through your _nose_." Well, if she wasn't just horrified when he finished that sentence. "Oh, and don't get my kimono dirty." Nee-chan threw a glare his way. He almost thought she was not going to do it given how long she waited until, at last, she grabbed an empty cup and poured some of the now-lukewarm tea in. Heeding his request, the kimono was pushed off safely out of the way, and she held the small rag that came with the tea pot under her face.

Reluctantly, Nee-chan tilted her head sideways, likewise tipping the cup to the nostril opening of her nose. Eyes closed tight, she drew in a large gulp of what should have been air but was green tea through her nose. Immediately she was choking and snorting on tea and, based on the viscous texture it possessed, Utsuho assumed snot. The rag covered her face, wiping at all the liquids Nee-chan was coughing and blowing out.

Needless to say, Utsuho was on the ground laughing his butt off. That was how the two teenagers passed the three hours of waiting. Since that first "truth" Nee-chan had chosen, there had not been any after that. It was Utsuho's turn when he figured it was nearly time for midnight. He was thinking more carefully about this one, since he wanted that prize for winning really badly.

"I dare you to walk from where you are to the tea and pour a cup…_with your eyes closed the entire time._"

"Going blind!?"

"Yep. Don't think you can?" he said, sitting back against the wall crossing his arms over his chest. "Oh, and you have to hold your right forefinger to your nose the entire time." A little grudgingly, Nee-chan stood in place, her eyes shutting closed. The index finger of her right hand inched up to her face, first missing he nose and poking her in the eye until she corrected the positioning. One foot took a tentative, wobbly step forward to the left where the tea tray lay. The angle Nee-chan had taken was still a little too much to the right, but he was not going to say anything.

Each step accompanied a tilting motion as he hips attempted to keep her body straight and in-balance so she would not fall over. Utsuho would describe it as an extremely slow dance across hot coals, and the finger to the nose locked her right arm in place, preventing it from swinging out to help balance her. Nee-chan was going even further off-course near the halfway point, drastically wobbling to the right closer to him than the tea tray. Watching as she oddly tiptoed around, Utsuho waited to see if she would correct herself or run into a wall.

One foot proceeded farther, bringing her to another dangerous tilt. To compensate, she moved the other foot out to steady herself only to trip on the first foot while crossing it. This brought her to a tumble into Utsuho's lap, where he used his quick thinking and reflexes to catch her waist lest she jab him with her elbows and knees.

"Sorry! Sorry!" apologized Nee-chan, looking up at him from her fallen position.

"My win!" announced Utsuho happily. "You opened your eyes."

"No, redo!" she said, miffed at her screw up.

"Nope, we're out of time, and it's only a one-chance deal. You owe me one order."

"What is—"

SCREEEEEEEEEEE…

A loud, ear-piercing whistle resounded through the air, rising in volume for a few seconds then dying back down to silence. "That's the signal!" Utsuho said. Right after he said it, an explosion went off at the back of the building next to theirs. "Run as soon as I light this," he told her, grabbing hold of the candle holder and dropping the small flame onto the trail of gunpowder. "GO! Fire! FIRE!"

Nee-chan picked-up on the idea pretty fast, dashing out of the room.

"Ah! Fire! Fire!" she screamed, drawing out the other inhabitants from the rooms. She tucked Utsuho's kimono top to herself closer, dragged along by the hand of the pyromaniac itsuwaribito. The two kept yelling "Fire!" as they ran outside the establishment that was rapidly going up in flames. Similar cries came from all across Yoshiwara.

BOOM!…BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!…BOOM! BOOM!…BOOM! BOOM!

Coming from various directions, the sound of explosions echoed throughout the district as more brothels were alit in dancing orange flames. Fire licked up the sides of so many wooden buildings, panicking most of the occupants into simply fleeing the red-light district.

Crashing wood reached their ears. In the corner of Utsuho's eye, he saw Uzume smashing the wooden bars on the front window cages where the prostitutes had been abandoned, locked in in fear. As soon as one cage was opened and women clambered out in a hurry, he moved right on to the next one in quick succession. Droves of escaping people, patrons and prostitutes alike, provided cover for Utsuho to drag Nee-chan to escape to safety past the gates of Yoshiwara.

Yoshiwara may have been known as an inescapable, corrupt fortress, but that was only because Utsuho had never come through town until then.

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Author's After-note: Yay! This chapter that felt like it would take forever to type is finished! Hope you guys like it! And I really appreciate the people reading and reviewing this story—it makes me super happy! That and being done with my test. Hehe.


	13. Utsuho - Trials 1, 2, and 3

Author's Note: Yep, another update in the same day. I was in the mood for typing today, and so I took the chance to do so. Even though Utsuho's previous chapter was really long compared to the others, he gets another one now. Like I said, there is something incredibly fun about writing it from his perspective.

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**Chapter 13. Utsuho - Trials 1, 2, and 3**

They found Hika and Iwashi hiding in the shadows of the trees, deep into the forest outside of Yoshiwara. Iwashi seemed like she was sleeping while standing, and Hika was in his favorite pose against a tree.

"Good to see you back, Nee-chan," Hika said casually.

"It's good to be back. Are you waiting for the others now?"

"Yep. Their jobs were a bit longer and more involved in the plan," explained Utsuho.

Several minutes later, Yakuma returned with Minamo and the other women kidnapped from the village. Minamo was holding a large bundle that nearly blocked her face, which she handed over to Nee-chan. "Here, Neya."

The older girl unraveled the bundle to see her clothes, the kunai-stuffed pillow, and her kanzashi, the Peacock Feather. The gesture must have touched Nee-chan because her face changed to one that said Awww~! and she gave the prophetic child a hug while going, "Thank you, thank you, Minamo-chan!"

"We asked Minamo to find your things and all the women from the village so we could help get them back home safely," Yakuma said.

"I'm gonna go change!" she declared, running deeper into the trees out of sight. At least she would not be in that stupid courtesan-kimono. Soon after, Uzume and Chouza came back, too.

"Minamo!" exclaimed Uzume as he ran up to hug the girl whom, though her face remained impassive to the untrained eye, tinged a light pink. "And Utsuho! Where's Nee-chan!?"

"Rather than that, did you get everyone out in time?"

"Yeah, he was breaking them out in record time," said Chouza.

"Oh, Uzume-san, Chouza-san!" said a girl's voice from behind them. Nee-chan emerged from the darkness of trees, dressed in her yukata and ponytail with the kokonotsu safely tucked in her hair.

"Nee-chan!" Uzume ran up to her in the blink of an eye, lifting her by her waist into the air and then dropping her down into his arms for a tight hug.

"Thanks, Uzume-san, it's good to see you again, too." The blush that highlighted her cheeks would have otherwise made Utsuho think she was cute if it were not for the fact that it was Bird Brain holding her that made her blush. She should not be blushing for that dolt! Luckily, Bird Brain let her down soon enough. She took the opportunity of freedom to walk over to Utsuho, and handed him his black kimono top back.

"Thanks for letting me borrow it…and thank you for rescuing me, Utsuho-san."

"It's been a while since my last building burning and master plans, so it was about due."

"Maybe we went a little overboard though, Utsuho-san. To burn an entire district…" said Yakuma uncertainly.

"How shameless, Yakuma!" yelled Utsuho with a punch to the doctor's face. "You would leave all those poor girls behind to live a life of prostitution!? Have some shame!" Another punch.

"Ow! I get it, but it was still dangerous."

"It's no fun it it isn't," added Hika.

"Wait, exactly how did you guys do it, though?" Nee-chan asked.

"Glad you asked!" Utsuho said, switching to an exuberant salesman tone, then becoming his usual explanatory self. "The screeching whistle was a contraption I made designed to burn in an empty space, causing the sound to reverberate through the container. That signaled Yakuma to light the first bomb at the back of the store next to us, catching that one on fire, and subsequently, catching the one we were in on fire, as well. Or at least that is what it would seem like to the outside observer. In actuality, as Nee-chan saw, I laid gunpowder and sake around, then lit it myself so it was slow enough burning for Minamo-chan, us, and the others to get out. Hika and Uzume let off eight more bombs placed between buildings where we had hoped no one was thanks to being drawn by the initial signal. Each of them, and Yakuma, had splashed some lamp oil on the back walls of each building, which they lit right after the explosions to make it look like that was what caused the fires. After everyone did that, they ran around yelling 'Fire' to get people panicked and running. Meanwhile, Uzume broke out the women left behind and Yakuma went with Chibikko to locate all the village girls and check if anyone was hurt."

The group glanced at the former red-light district, lighting up the sky in a heated orange. Buildings collapse as the fires chewed through wood turning it to charcoal. The wall kept the fire contained to the rectangular area. Firefighters would not be able to put out that burning inferno.

"I knew you liked to burn things, Utsuho-san, what with Hisago* the Magician's tower, and I heard about the sick lord's mansion you set on fire to get that evil itsuwaribito and his men out…yet this is more than I ever imagined," Nee-chan said in awe.

"You wish I hadn't done it?"

She turned to him and smiled, eyes closed and happy. "I'm glad you did."

**xXx**

All of them (meaning the group of eight travelers plus the nineteen village women and girls) camped out tat night as best they could with the few supplies they had. Utsuho was back where he was before—no gunpowder for bombs, and all the bombs he had were gone. It would have been nice to visit Edo; however, they suspected the authorities would be on the lookout for whomever burnt Yoshiwara down to the ground the night before.

Therefore, they departed early in the morning. Nee-chan was reunited with Nao, whom had run off in the midst of all the fiery action, only to return when it was safe. The group made due with food by having Uzume hunt a couple of birds or rabbits, and Nee-chan and the other women would gather the necessary ingredients to cook it.

During this time, Utsuho was caught up in his own dilemma. His hormones had simmered down quite a bit since that night in the brothel. That did not mean that they were gone. Like he had previously theorized, Utsuho tested his reaction toward Iwashi. When he was around a whole bunch of people, he just did not feel anywhere near being in the "mood". To make sure whether it was the presence of company that made him unreceptive, he had invited the princess with him to gather firewood one day. Alone with the elder seductive girl—in close proximity—his heart beat did not skip a beat, or react in any way at all. There was no rush of desire at the view of her face or breasts or waist or butt or long legs. Nothing.

The same went for a rather pretty girl among the villagers whom he similarly offered to help get water for. He figured another test with an attractive strange that he was not immune to seeing nearly naked, like Iwashi, might trigger something. The result was a confused, flustered girl, but no reaction from him. He had even attempted to imagine kissing and touching her, only to be incapable of completing the awkward thought, just like Iwashi. Because such images came to him unbidden when it had been Nee-chan, the girl closest to him at the time, he thought that something would have happened likewise with the princess and the other girl.

However, everything was different concerning Nee-chan. Even while in large groups, if his eyes just passed over her by chance when she happened to be walking ahead of him instead of behind, his heart quickened and his gut tightened. Almost as if he was anticipating something. Then there was the single time they had been relatively alone one night, barely a couple yards away from the sleeping campers. Both of them had awoken, and she innocently asked him why he was awake before going to grab some water for her and Nao.

His reaction: nearly not answering after getting a slack jaw, and an intense desire coursing through his veins to go after her. His eyes trailed over her clothed shoulders, remembering how elegant they looked, as well as the chest that they led down to; her narrowed waist he had caught when she stumbled blind had been so supple and soft unlike his; those slender legs he could see adorned in those shorts underneath her yukata, with enough of her skin showing to be utterly tantalizing. Those images of things he could do to her, the sounds she would make, came back racing through his mind despite being rejected when it was the other two women. It did not help his kimono had been returned to him smelling of her: peaches and cherry blossoms. The next night he had slept after getting it back, he was surrounded by the alluring, taunting scent even in his dreams.

No, he did not dare take her somewhere alone to confirm anything. It was obvious to him that he would want to do much more than confirming. And though Utsuho was confident he could control himself, he knew it would be an unnecessarily torturous experience.

So the question that begged to be asked about his apparent bodily attraction to Neya was:

What was he to do about it?

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Author's After-note: Delving deeper into Utsuho's speculations on Neya. Just so much chemistry between the two! I can't wait for something to happen in the manga. One of the genres is romance, after all!

**Hisago: **Utsuho, Neya, Pochi, and Yakuma met this guy in the tower with the old man who was said to perform miracles and grant people's wishes. Hisago was posing as the apprentice along with his men and would take money offerings from the people unbeknownst to the old man. He and his two companions almost managed to escape from being arrested after traveling to a different province, but Utsuho released fliers telling of Hisago running away from his rich, beautiful fiancée for another woman along with a servant, so he could not escape after that.


	14. Neya - Peaceful Days Coming and Going

Author's Note: Yep, I'm going for all the way to chapter 15 today. I remember when I wrote an _Inuyasha_ fan fiction and its sequel and demanding that my readers leave five reviews before I would post another chapter. Now, I'm more excited to get along in this story to see what happens next and share it with everyone else! Since this is being written without a great deal of forethought, I don't know how it will end, and I am really letting the story write itself as it goes, so I'm pretty much in the same boat as my readers. We'll all see what awaits at the end!

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**Chapter 14. Neya - Peaceful Days Coming and Going**

Traveling had been slow with all the people they had. Many of the women with them were unused to the long walks, so the breaks were numerous. What had taken the bandits and merchant a little over a week transporting them, and Utsuho and the rest two weeks on foot, would likely take them a month at the rate they were going.

This did not stop them from deciding to go all the way back, because each of them had agreed it was too dangerous for a large group of defenseless women unaccustomed to traveling to be bay themselves. It was best to see through their duty to the end, to which the villagers were extraordinarily grateful.

The calm weather and easy-going walking was doing nothing to ease her thoughts, on the other hand. Neya still owed Utsuho an order, and she was wracking her brain over what he would ask. That he had yet to ask possibly bothered her even more—the suspense would kill her. As soon as she thought she had completely forgotten about it so she could relax, it popped up once more. The situation was not helped by Utsuho's slightly off-kilter behavior lately. Every time she spoke to him in what she believed to be a normal manner, he reacted more suddenly, as if surprised she was talking to him. Not only that, he would look at her for a few seconds, swivel his head back around to the other side and only then reply to her. After that, he would not look at her at all.

Neya supposed that they would be at least a _little_ bit weird given she had come to him as a prostitute while he acted the part of a customer. That had been a…different kind of night for the both of them. Although nothing had occurred, the situation had been abnormal for them nonetheless. She only hoped the awkwardness would end soon.

**xXx**

On the ninth day of walking as they settled for the night, Neya was assigned to water duty. That was part of what was different with all these women—where it used to be just her doing most of the cooking, now they alternated cooking, getting water, gathering firewood, and finding ingredients.

The pot of cast iron metal bumped idly against her thighs as she walked around, searching for a source of fresh water. Alerted by the crunching of twigs and leaves, Neya saw Utsuho approaching.

"Utsuho-san?"

"I've been sent to find mushrooms," he said while smiling.

The two walked side-by-side, scanning the area. Every time he found a patch of mushrooms, he would examine them and pick the ones he knew to not be poisonous. Several minutes later brought them to the best place. What they discovered was a spring nestled into a small rock formation. Moss grew on the rocks, mushrooms clumped together in various places, and moonlight filtering through tree leaves upon the clearing.

Neya soaked in the beauty of the seclusive place. How nice it would be to sit there with Minamo-chan and Nao, splashing their feet in the water simply enjoying the day as sunlight, not moonlight, trickled through gently among the shade. Recalling herself from her daydreaming, Neya strolled to the water's edge to dip the pot into the clear water.

"It's so beautiful," she said aloud.

"Mm, it is a nice little _private_ place," he off-handedly agreed.

"Too bad we are just passing through for the night. I'd love to stay here longer," Neya continued to wistfully remark.

"Me too," said Utsuho. "Hey, Nee-chan," Utsuho went on just as casually.

"Hm?"

"You remember the victor's prize for that game of Truth or Dare, right?"

Neya faced the trickster. Of course she remembered. It had been plaguing her thoughts for days what he would ask of her. Hopefully it was not anything too embarrassing link drinking tea through her nose was or something. "Yeah, I remember," she cautiously replied.

"Well, I've decided…" he said, that foxy grin making his teeth appear to glint from the darkness of night, his opened eyes peering out at her.

_'I've got a bad feeling about this.'_

* * *

Author's After-note: Yes, super short! I know. Periods like this I have no idea what to write.


	15. Utsuho - Be Gentle, Now…

Author's Note: Okay, so this is the last chapter that I have written up, so after this it may take a little while to get more chapters up. However, I do believe they should be better quality and longer. Hope you have fun with this one!

* * *

**Chapter 15. Utsuho - Be Gentle, Now…**

The grin could not be kept from his face at what he was about to do. Why deny himself?

"Well, I've decided…take off your clothes, slowly, where you are."

The girl's face reddened, complementing the shade of her hair. He loved that exotic color so much. Who knew that pink could be so unbelievably fetching? At least on her it was.

"A-are you sure?" she shyly questioned.

"Absolutely." There was no backing out now.

Her face spelled out how beautifully embarrassed she was, but she complied very, _very_ slowly by facing her back to him. That's alright, he'd allow her that bit of modesty. Steadily, he approached her, watching those dainty fingers go to untie her obi at her back, shaking all the while. She would not look at him the entire time, and he was fine with that. After he came up to stand right behind her, not touching, her hands inched her outer kimono over her shoulders to drop completely to the ground, pooling at her feet. The dark red kimono beneath that also came to the same fate, exposing her shoulders and back to him.

Utsuho took all of it in, moving closer to mould his chest to her back. That pale sakura-colored head just barely reached his chin, so he could smell those delicious peaches and cherry-blossoms right under his nose. Her breathy gasp at his movement encouraged him all the more to teasingly trail the tips of his fingers along the skin of her exposed arms…then lay his palms on her shoulders without putting any weight on them. Leaning his head down to the crook of her neck, she unconsciously tilted her own head to give him more room. For the first time, his lips touched upon her heavenly skin, and all he could think then was he wanted more, **needed** more.

His hands continued their journey once more, moving down her back to the sides of her ribcage, farther, farther, farther down to her waist and at last her hips. He splayed his hands flat against her soft belly, reveling in the smooth expanse before going back upward, upward until his hands found those two firm globes that his fingers lightly ghost over, barely touching. The girl in his arms was already panting in small mewls, her head rolling back onto his chest while his tongue, lips, and fingers danced along her skin as sneakily as he did everything else in life.

Finally, he gave into temptation, flicking his index fingers over two rosy pink nipples that peaked out, giving him a healthy view of them from his position over her shoulder. Her chest pushed out as she sucked in a large breath at his action. "More…" she sighed out. That was a command he was happy to comply to. Utsuho repeated the action a few more times, growing a bit more urgent with each touch, pushing his fingers a little harder, lips moving up her neck nipping wherever he went, his hips pressing into her back to ease the ache of his hardened member. A hand abandoned its duty of fondling a breast to slide down over her stomach, all the way to edge of those shorts that stood between him and her untouched skin.

A finger dipped in beneath the fabric, then another as he pushed it off her hip.

"Utsuho…" rang his name from her lips in a sultry sigh.

Utsuho's eyes shot open, staring up into the starry night sky.

"Exciting dream, Utsuho-kun?"

The younger itsuwaribito looked at the immortal cat-like man. More often than not, the group had Hika stand watch at night because he did not need sleep (at least according to him). He had to wonder what had clued in Hika to his nighttime fantasy.

Seemingly understanding the reason for his confusion, Hika pointed a finger downward. Ah, that would make it obvious. Utsuho was sporting quite a noticeable tent in his pants. It was not often he found himself embarrassed, especially considering how much of a sense of humor he had, but somehow being seen in such a manner made Utsuho feel juvenile and foolish like in his younger years. That knowing smirk Hika wore did not help any either.

Still, that dream had been so incredibly intense. What had really happened after he had told Nee-chan that he had decided was he had said he lied, and that she should look forward to it later. It had been meant to rattle her for fun, as he knew she was likely worrying about his order.

The dream, however, had changed to him telling her to strip of all things! He would never do that in real-life, because that was utterly un-gentlemanly. That his subconscious would play with that fantasy bothered him. It had not been unusual, though, for him to have dreams about continuing their session at the brothel, or any situation for that matter.

And each time, it abruptly ended before he could get her lower half exposed. Maybe it was from lack of experience and an image?

Rather than stupidly sit there thinking about all of his almost-sexual fantasies, Utsuho got up to go splash his face with cold water at the spring.

As he passed by Hika, the former-guardian said, "You have to be gentle the first time, so that they can really enjoy it."

Utsuho did not care to grant that advice a response.

* * *

Author's After-note: Wow, my first time trying to write anything that…steamy. Hope you guys don't hate me for the tease! I just knew I wanted to do one of those dreams, but I always hated how authors would put it all in italics or do something so you absolutely would know it wasn't real. I figured to drop hints with Neya's easy compliance, but nothing more than that really. Look out for the next update—I don't know when it will be ready, but I'll try to get it within a week or two at the latest.


	16. Neya - Can You Trust a Fox?

Author's Note: I'm back! I've got a pretty good idea where to go with this story, so that's good news. I'll probably be able to get these done quicker, too. Anything else I can say is this: I hope people get this chapter. I may have been too stuck in my own head, so we'll see.

* * *

**Chapter 16. Neya - Can You Trust a Fox?**

The late summer sun shone on their heads with a vengeance; soon, the days would become colder and brisk for autumn, but until then Japan was bathed in scorching sunlight and suffocating humidity. Sweat soaked their necks and backs, and they could practically feel themselves breathing the water steeped in the air. Still the group continued to trudge on to their northward destination. Movement was further halted in order to take water breaks more frequently, leading Neya to believe the original one-month estimate was too short. Already it had been three weeks, so she anticipated at least a couple more.

All things said and done, though, she could not find herself all that bothered by the situation. Neya was back with her friends and Nao kept her entertained by running around her in circles or dashing ahead to explore his surroundings. It was utterly adorable how he would suck behind bushes and jump out to surprise her. Or when he went hunting, the fox cub would duck down close to the ground and inch forward carefully, then pounce! He was showing a great deal of progress in his technique. Afterward, similar to a cat, Nao would bring some dead rodent or other to her, showing off his achievement before he devoured it raw.

Unfortunately, the presence of the fox cub also worried the villagers, quite often frightening them away when he came near. Some of the women expressed suspicion that the fox was a spirit tricking her into caring for it only to betray her one day when her guard was mostly down. Granted, Neya had traveled with a talking tanuki for a fair amount of time so she herself could not discount spirit-creatures like tanuki and kitsune*, but she was not going to doubt the fox-child simply because of their reputation.

How could she, after all, with the human company she kept? Considering her companions, it seemed only fair to give people a chance and trust them because, really, that may be all that they need.

There was Iwashi, with a reputation of a selfish princess that banished anything that was not beautiful (i.e. all men). Once Neya got to know her (and got over the love rival thing), Neya found Iwashi to be a very considerate, hard-working person fully concerned about others. She even reminded her of Onihime, whom was thoroughly misunderstood.

Yakuma, although a doctor, was distrusted for his employment of surgery, yet he works earnestly to help save his patients even if he had been the one to inflict the damage to begin with.

Chouza was the child of a criminal, as his tattoos around his eyes gave away, which led to him being misjudged as a person and going down the path of a criminal, too. Now, however, she sees a caring, older-brother figure to Uzume and Minamo—a good person that had been pushed into being a criminal by others because that is what they had expected of him.

Like Chouza, Uzume also seemed to have his own history of being misunderstood as being less than human, teaching him to hate those people who hate him. Given a chance as he was to have people treat him as friend and family, he turned into an honest fool filled with compassion.

With them was Minamo, whom people pictured as a monster with demon eyes that always predicted horrible outcomes. The reality: a young girl seeking to help others with her powers by warning them ahead of time.

Hikae, Neya would admit, was a bit beyond her understanding. She had initially distrusted him, and the fact that he had murdered freely while allowing himself to be just as freely "killed" confused her greatly; nevertheless, enough time shared with the immortal made her realize he was probably lonely and yearning for people to be with as comrades, too.

And then there was Utsuho. A liar through and through. He tricks people at every turn, whether it be friend or foe. To top it off, he was a first-class itsuwaribito. Just by hearing that, people would immediately assume him to be a devious person willing to betray anyone and everyone. No one would be convinced that there was truly such a thing as a good itsuwaribito without seeing him work first-hand. Yet here she was, standing by that itsuwaribito's side through thick and thin, hopelessly in love. She knew that despite all the bad itsuwaribito out there, hers was more giving than most normal people. He comes through for his friends and those in need alike.

No matter what people may say to her, Neya would not turn her back on her companions. Same for Nao, she would take care of him and provide the love and care he needs.

**xXx**

"Ne, ne, Nee-chan," beckoned Uzume, bounding up to her and scaring Nao into hiding behind her legs.

"What is it, Uzume-san?"

"I've been wandering lately," he started.

"You mean 'wondering'?"

"Yeah, that! Since you were in Yoshiwara, you must know all about the things men and women do together, right?" he said eagerly.

It went without saying Neya began to blush. "W-well, I didn't _really_—"

"So kissing is what they do, isn't it?" Uzume pressed on more excitedly.

"Yes, at first." Neya was going to go on to carefully explaining to the rather naive teen, but did not bother when she noticed he was no longer listening.

"Then would you kiss me, Nee-chan?"

…

"Huh?"

"I want to kiss a pretty girl, and so I thought of Nee-chan!" Uzume's face wore an achieved smile, as though he had figured it all out himself.

"No, Uzume-san, you can't. I can't. Kissing someone should be done between two people that like each other," she explained gently, hoping he would understand.

"I like Nee-chan. Don't you like me?" His face turned down, and Neya felt like she had just kicked a puppy.

"I like Uzume-san, but I don't _like_ like you. And I'm pretty sure you don't feel the same way either about me."

"Doesn't like-like just mean you really like someone? 'Cause I really like Nee-chan!"

This approach was not working. Neya decided on a slight change of tactic.

"Do you really like Chouza-san, as well?"

"Yeah! But he's a guy, so I can't kiss him."*

"See, that's the wrong like, Uzume-san. When you _like_-like someone, you feel that way for only them. It's a special kind of like for that one person. Therefore, you don't really like-like me since you also feel that way about another."

"That's kind of complicated," he said, scratching his head as the information processed. "How do you get to like-like a person then?"

"I…don't really know. You're sometimes just around a person a whole bunch and, before you know it, it's happened for whatever reason." The memories of her being told by Yakuma that she treated Utsuho specially before she knew it came back to her, drawing from that experience.

"I see. So if I like-like Nee-chan, then I can kiss you?"

"N-no, because I have to also like-like you back." Uzume gave her one of his bright, carefree smiles, despite having been told she did not feel that way toward him. Ignorance certainly was bliss in some circumstances.

The boy left her to run back to Chouza; the visual of moving so quickly and exaggeratedly in that heat made Neya feel a few degrees warmer. A pressure on her leg brought her attention back down to the leisurely walking fox cub at her feet. She leaned down to pet Nao, his pleading eyes begging for attention. The staff-wielder may have taken her attention briefly, but she would never forget her precious fox.

**xXx**

For the remaining two weeks of dreaded sunshine and endless walking, Uzume stuck to her like glue. Wherever in the group she was, there would be Uzume next to her. If she went to gather ingredients, firewood, or water, he would accompany her. He even insisted on lying down near her when they slept! The boy had become her shadow, and she had a sinking suspicion she knew why.

When she had inquired to his constant presence for confirmation, he had replied that if he suck by her all the time, he would come to like-like her and she would feel the same. The women that overheard his reasoning giggled at his innocence, even going so far as to making use of his boundless energy to do some work while he hovered around Neya. Some had advised her to consider the white-haired teen (without fox yes, she would glumly add) given how kind and sweet he was. Many of the women knew him from when he had broken them out of burning brothels, so their opinion of him was considerably high. Who would not want such a straightforward and honest man like him?

Hazy orange dusk had been approaching when it had happened.

Only a day away from the village, the group had stopped in a clearing off the main road completely exhausted. Neya had just claimed her spot beside Minamo for the night.

"If Nee-chan's sleeping there, then I'll sleep right here!" he declared as he plopped onto the ground beside her. Honestly, she did not _hate_ having Uzume sleep beside her, but he certainly chit-chatted a lot before bed and frequently shifted around, keeping her awake at times.

"Hey Bird Brain! If you keep sleeping next to girls, you'll turn into one." A sandaled foot pressed on the back of Uzume's head, connected to the black-dressed itsuwaribito standing behind him. His expression was neutral, one he used when showing some worry for people that were not Pochi.

"You're lying! There's no such thing, Utsuho!" he indignantly said, though his own face did not mirror his confidence.

"It's true. Do you really want to turn into a girl that bad? Because if that's so, then I'll just leave you alone," and Utsuho removed his foot to walk away.

Panic spread across Uzume's face, shooting up to follow Utsuho over to where the guys were laid out. If she were not so worried at how gullible Uzume was, Neya would have put more thought into why Utsuho would have done such a thing. Instead, she silently thanked the fox-like itsuwaribito for allowing her to sleep in peace that night.

Nao cuddled in next to her, soft fur sliding along her hand.

_'Thank you, my dear foxes.'_

* * *

Author's After-note: There! What'd you guys think? I kind of just wanted to do something cute like this to more thoroughly establish Neya's feelings toward the others.

**kitsune: **This is Japanese for "fox" and, like tanuki, can transform themselves and trick humans. I figured it would sound more like the spirit-fox if I left it in Japanese there to differentiate from normal foxes. Everyone remember a certain nine-tailed fox?

**"Yeah! But he's a guy, so I can't kiss him.": **Okay, I know I say I accept flames, but this I do not want any flames for. **NO**, I am not against boy-love and all that, but since Uzume is so clearly straight as given by the original manga (he's always on about Neya and Iwashi being pretty girls and whatnot) I am going with the logical assumption that he would not want to romantically kiss a boy. I'm sure that eventually, there will be plenty of yaoi fan fiction in this fandom, but this is not the place to find it. So do not get on my case about it. Thank you.


	17. Hikae - Those Envious Stars

Author's Note: Sorry about the wait everyone! (Like the ten people reading this. ^_^; ) Anyway, give thanks to Featherhart, because you kept poking me to get on with my writing. Thank you! By the way, I had happened to be listening to "Dust in the Wind" while writing this at one point, so don't be surprised at the beginning half of the chapter.

Hope you guys like this added spin!

* * *

**Chapter 17. Hikae - Those Envious Stars**

It really was quite amusing watching the two.

One was head-over-heels in love while being epically innocent and naive.

Then the other had little clue to his behavior and was trying to write off his overly-imaginative (and erotic) thoughts as another stage of puberty.

Hikae had seen his fair share of love-struck couples, so it was not beyond him what was going on with Nee-chan and Utsuho-kun. His once horrendously boring nights became much more interesting with Utsuho's change in attitude toward the sakura-haired girl. Before, his night watches were filled with the unending bore of silence, unless if you count snoring, as he tried to make-up games to entertain himself. Now, however, he could look back at the usually-composed Utsuho-kun and his frantic antics during that day; there were the occasional treats when the boy would wake up confused, flustered, and somehow disappointed, then the tent he would be sporting told Hikae everything he needed to know.

Gentle light filtered into the clearing everyone had settled in. Earlier, that fool Uzume had been insistently trying to make his move on Nee-chan with little clue on how to do so. Having failed, Nee-chan slept with Minamo and Iwashi, whom was charming even in her sleep…

Hikae shook his head of thoughts of the amusingly eccentric princess. Instead, he focused on the other side of camp to where Utsuho-kun slept with Yakuma, Chouza, and Uzume. To others Utsuho's lie about turning into a woman may have simply been him teasing the fool, but Hikae had been watching long enough to recognize it for what it was: a declaration of ownership.

That was the interesting thing about humans, how they do things based on feelings and impulses that surge through their chest or gut without knowing with their head what it meant, like Utsuho had done. It's exactly what love is, if anyone were to think about it; an aching in the heart and clenching in the gut tells a person "I'm in love" even though one cannot really pinpoint when or why it happened, just that it did.

The eternally teasing stars in the distant heavens shined above him, ever his night companion. After staring at them for five-hundred years worth of sleepless nights spent in lonesome boredom, he held a love-hate relationship with them (thought it was utterly one-sided). Staring at them in the twilight hours, he had found mild amusement in the shapes he could make, celestial bodies crafted in his mind. Those fanciful beings seemed to mock him in his menial, make-believe immortality—not like the immortality they shared with the earth and oceans and sky and God. It made him feel small, and feeling so insignificant was as bad as being bored.

And yet, his eyes slid peacefully back to the very mortal princess, sleeping down on the cold ground of the earth, far from being high in the heavens to be admired by life forms for all of time. Nevertheless, the soft gleam of her skin, the coy gentleness in her eyes she held while awake, and the small smile she always wore shined brighter and more magnificently than any of those pinpricks of light in his eyes. In fact, each one of his companions held their own unique sparkle, and it never bored him to watch them shine day after day.

Yes, he decided it was about time to end his one-sided relationship with the stars. They could do what they did all they want, he had grown from their cold company.

xXx

The next morning was a welcome relief to the travelers. There, before them, stood the town they had left nearly two months prior. Piles of lumber were stacked beside some buildings accompanied by the sound of hammering, indicating the construction going on at those sites. Aside from that, there was little evidence of the bandits ever raiding and half-trashing the town.

Women that had long been trudging in exhaustion found renewed energy with just the sight of their home. None of the group moved to stop them as they dashed forward, husbands embracing wives, mothers and fathers embracing daughters. Tears of joy and wails of relief were shared, and Hikae took his time along with the others to appreciate a job well-done.

Many of those that had just welcomed back their beloved approached the seven of them.

"Thank you very much for saving them," one old man said. "Please, spend the night or even two, and replenish yourselves. If you need anything, just ask."

"Then we'll kindly take you up on that offer!" said Utsuho, whom was standing at the head of the group to Hikae's left. "Two of your best rooms! And lots and lots of dango!"

The crowd scattered as it heard his "requests" (more like demands, but, who cares?), and Hikae observed as Nee-chan glared at the boy.

"Couldn't you have been a bit more polite about asking, Utsuho-san!?" she scolded.

His response was to swiftly turn his head away, chin up, mumbling something along the lines of "All that trouble we went through…the least…do is this."

Ha. The poor kid was becoming more and more wrapped around her little finger. Pretty soon, Utsuho may actually start _listening_ to Nee-chan.

"Nee-yan, would you care to go see that beauty store we were looking at before being so _rudely_ interrupted by those bandits?" asked Iwashi.

"Sure. Let's go, Minamo-chan! Nao-chan!" The three girls and fox (was that thing already that big?) walked away toward one of the fixed stores, leaving behind the hungry Utsuho and criminal duo, as well as the relatively indifferent doctor. A man ushered them toward his teahouse. The young teenage girl waited there with her mother, eagerly introducing each of her saviors to her parents.

The girl was so caught up in her tales that Hikae felt no guilt in sneaking away to see exactly what Iwashi and the others were doing. He found them quickly at the same store front Iwashi had led him to before when they had tried to find Nee-chan and Minamo during the attack.

"Ara? Nyan-Nyan, what are you doing over here?" inquired the short-haired girl when she spotted him.

"I wanted to see what you three were up to," he answered easily.

"Then while Nyan-Nyan is here, would you care to give your opinion?"

"Hmm?"

Iwashi dragged a surprised Nee-chan over.

"Well, what do you think?" said Iwashi expectantly.

Without any hint as to what he was supposed to be looking for, Hikae stared at her face first. That was when he quickly noticed a more defined pink color on her lips, the oily paint causing her lips to glisten slightly. It was quite a fetching color on the girl, complementing her pretty pale sakura-colored hair and even matching with her reddish-brown eyes.

"It looks good. Utsuho will definitely like it," he said. As soon as the second sentence slipped from his mouth, Nee-chan blushed furiously and hurried away from the two of them.

"Then, which does Nyan-Nyan believe would suit me more?" asked Iwashi again, holding up two rouges. One was an orangish-pink and the other a light purple-tinted pink.

Hikae carefully considered the two options for ten seconds before searching the shelves for another. He found one, pleased with his selection, and held it up to Iwashi. "I think this one suits you most."

Her eyes widened a fraction, picking up the small container of creamy pink rouge. The princess gazed back up at him, then gave her small smile as she hid it behind her fan, that coy gentleness sneaking back into her eyes. The sight shocked his heart into thumping hard and heavy in his chest for a few moments. He kept a casual face for, though he would admit to having feelings for her just as Utsuho had for Nee-chan, Hikae still had enough of his mind to not let his inner thoughts show.

The four of them (plus Nao) left the shop ten minutes later. Regardless of what Nee-chan had insisted, the shop owner refused to be paid for the rouges the three girls chose. Hikae could not quite understand Nee-chan's reluctance to receive a gift of gratitude for free, but he did not say anything the entire time. He wholeheartedly agreed with the saying that a man would never understand the way a woman's mind worked no matter how long he lived.

Afterwards, they returned to Utsuho and the others stuffing themselves with tea and dango.

"Hika, Nee-chan, Hime-san, Chibikko! Come get some before they're all out " shouted a happy Utsuho.

"Oh?" Yakuma fixed his sight on Nee-chan, "Neya, that's a very fitting color of lip rouge." The ease at which the doctor not only noticed, but complimented her from that distance convinced Hikae that, had Yakuma not loved another, he would make a natural playboy.

"Thank you," she said, just barely missing Utsuho's intense gaze on her lips before ducking his head to eat more dango. When she finally turned to see his reaction a mere half-a-minute later, the girl's head drooped a bit and her smile faltered as the boy seemed to have no other concern than eating. Hikae almost felt bad for Nee-chan for being so clueless had he not been confident that one day the two of them would eventually wake-up and smell the roses. Until then, she would endure as she always had.

"Since we are heading to Kyoto, I was talking to the shop owner about the best ways to get there," began Utsuho after gulping down another dango. "He gets a lot of merchants coming through here, so he hears a lot. According to him, the quickest way to get there is to go west to Niigata and take a ship south to the closest port near Kyoto, then travel the rest of the way by foot."

"Sounds like fun. I haven't been out at sea for several decades," said Hikae.

While they were all settling down to eat, Hikae idly thought, _'I wonder how many of these guys get seasick.'_

Chuckle.

* * *

Author's After-note: Okay, I am too tired to write much. Please read and review!


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